FRED  LOCKLEY 

RARE  WESTERN  BOOKS 

1243  East  Stark  St. 
PORTLAND.  ORE. 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


TO  MY  THREE  SONS 

HOWARD,  CLIFFORD  AND  ARTHUR  A.,  Jb. 

WHO  WERE  GREATLY  INTERESTED  IN  MY  STORY 

WHILE  BEING  WRITTEN, 

THIS  VOLUME  IS 

AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 


MR.  ARTHUR  A.  DIETZ 
Upper,  taken  just  before  he  started  for  Alaska.      Center,   on  his  return  after  his 
hair  and  whiskers  were  trimmed.    Lower,  as  he  appears  today. 


Mad  Rush  for  Gold 

IN 

Frozen  North 


BY 
ARTHUR  ARNOLD  DIETZ 


ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS 

BY 

W.  A.  SHARP 


LOS  ANGELES: 
TIMES-MIRROR  PRINTING  AND  BINDING  HOUSE 
1914 


ID -5 


Copyrighted 

By 

Arthur  Arnold  Dietz 

November,  1914 


PREFACE 

A  thrilling  adventure  of  a  party  of  eighteen 
gold  seekers  who  left  New  York  City  in  the 
winter  of  1897,  headed  by  Arthur  A.  Dietz,  who 
has  been  physical  director  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  at  New  York  City, 
Lockport,  N.  Y.,  Torrington,  Conn,  and  Coates- 
ville,  Pa.,  and  at  present  in  the  Playground 
Department  of  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Of  the  eighteen  men  who  started  out,  only 
four  of  the  party  ever  reached  civilization  alive, 
and  of  the  four,  two  are  totally  blind,  while  the 
other  two  were  left  with  very  poor  sight,  due  to 
the  glaring  effect  of  the  sun  on  the  snow  and  ice. 
The  party  traveled  many  miles  into  the  very 
heart  of  Alaska,  crossing  immense  glaciers,  which 
had  never  been  crossed  by  white  man  before. 

This  wonderful  true  adventure  is  far  more 
absorbing  than  any  of  the  fiction  that  has  been 
written  about  Alaska  and  has  a  decided  educa- 
tional value. 

During  the  time  he  was  away  Mr.  Dietz  kept  a 
diary  in  which  he  recorded  his  adventures  up 
until  the  time  when  he  lost  all  record  of  time  in 
the  great  Arctic  night,  but  he  kept  a  record  of 
every  incident  for  the  two  years  and  two  months 
that  he  was  away. 

. 851110 


The  city  of  Seattle,  during  the  gold  rush  is 
vividly  pictured  with  all  its  vices.  A  heart- 
breaking trip  by  boat  to  Yakutat,  Alaska. 
Meeting  the  natives  and  the  missionary  and 
their  mode  of  living.  The  start  over  the  great 
Malaspina  Glacier,  where  some  of  the  party 
met  their  death  by  falling  into  snow-covered 
crevices.  After  untold  sufferings  they  reached 
the  interior  and  were  engulfed  in  the  arctic 
night,  which  held  them  frostbound  for  seven 
months.  Their  miraculous  escape  to  the  out- 
side world  through  the  assistance  of  a  tribe  of 
interior  natives  and  their  final  rescue  by  the 
U.  S.  revenue  cutter  Wolcott,  then  patrolling 
the  Alaska  coast  protecting  the  seal  industry. 

For  a  month  before  the  rescue,  the  remaining 
party  were  compelled  to  eat  their  faithful  dogs 
and  dead  fish  found  on  the  beach,  and  after 
spending  two  weeks  in  a  hospital  at  Sitka, 
Alaska,  where  they  were  taken  by  the  Wolcott, 
they  again  reached  Seattle,  only  to  hear  that 
they  were  reported  lost  two  years  before. 

Author. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  NORTH 

Spirit  of  the  frozen  North, 

Where  the  wave  is  chained  and  still, 
And  the  savage  bear  looks  forth 

Nightly  from  his  caverned  hill ! 

Down  from  the  eternal  throne, 
From  thy  land  of  clouds  and  storm 

Where  the  meeting  icebergs  groan, 
Sweepeth  on  thy  wrathful  form. 

Spirit  of  the  frozen  wing  ! 

Dweller  of  a  voiceless  clime, 
Where  no  coming  on  of  spring 

Gilds  the  weary  course  of  time ! 
Monarch  of  a  realm  untrod 

By  the  restless  feet  of  men, 
Where  alone  the  hand  of  God 

'Mid  his  mighty  works  hath  been ! 

Throned  amid  the  ancient  hills, 

Piled  with  undecaying  snow, 
Flashing  with  the  path  of  rills, 

Frozen  in  their  first  glad  flow; 
Thou  hast  seen  the  gloomy  north, 

Gleaming  with  unearthly  light, 
Spreading  its  pale  banners  forth, 

Checkered  with  the  stars  of  night. 

Lord  of  sunless  depths  and  cold ! 

Chainer  of  the  northern  sea ! 
At  whose  feet  the  storm  is  rolled, 

Who  hath  power  to  humble  thee? 
Spirit  of  the  stormy  north ! 

Bow  thee  to  thy  Maker's  nod; 
Bend  to  Him  who  sent  thee  forth, 

Servant  of  the  living  God. 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

A  Picture  of  the  Days  when  Young  and  Old  Men 
and  even  Women  Rushed  away  to  the  Gold 
Fields  of  Alaska.    Party  of  Eighteen  Start 
from   New    York   City.     Seattle  more 
Wicked  than  Sodom.  New  York  Party 
Charter  an  Old  Brig  which  had  been 
Condemned  by  the  U.  S.  Govern- 
ment  Two     Years    Previous.    ,       . 
Hundreds  of  Lives  Lost  in- 
1897-1898. 


CHAPTER  I. 

URING  the  two  years  following  the 

Dn  discovery  of  gold  in  Alaska,  no  few- 
er than  1800  men  who  went  to  that 
vast  continent  of  snow  and  ice, 
buoyant  with  hopes  and  dreams  of 
untold  treasures  that  were  to  be 
theirs  for  the  taking,  met  death  in- 
stead. These  figures  are  from  the 
government  report.  But  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  true  story  of  the  great  harvest  of  death  in 
that  land  at  that  time  has  ever  been  told,  or 
ever  will  be  known. 

My  own  impression  is,  and  I  write  it  down 
confidently,  that  the  number  of  brave  fellows 

11 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

who  started  for  the  Klondyke  region  and  never 
returned  was  between  twenty  and  twenty-five 
hundred,  nearly  the  total  fatalities  from  all 
causes  on  both  sides  in  the  Spanish-American 
war.  Behold,  the  power  of  gold!  Imagine  that 
great  army  of  misguided  humanity — the  very 
flower  of  America's  best  physical  manhood — 
going  down  to  death  for  mere  gold,  which  after 
all  is  a  minor  consideration  in  the  affairs  of  men. 

When  after  untold  hardships  I  made  my  way 
into  the  heart  of  Alaska,  and  it  came  to  be  a 
question  of  lite  or  death,  I  left  behind  the  gold 
I  took  along  without  great  regret  as  I  would 
leave  behind  a  worthless  burden.  I  have  learned 
the  value  of  gold  as  compared  with  life.  But  in 
1896  I  did  not  realize  that  or  this  story  would 
never  have  been  written — or  experienced. 

I  remember  distinctly  how  each  morning 
the  papers  announced  in  flaring  headlines  that 
great  quantities  of  gold  were  being  picked  up 
in  the  interior  of  Alaska.  Men  grew  rich  over 
night;  the  treasure  was  so  great  that  there  were 
not  enough  people  to  lay  claim  to  it. 

The  country  went  gold-mad.  People  ran 
away  from  their  homes  determined  to  go  to  the 
Klondyke.  Others,  who  were  tied  to  their 
homes  by  ties  so  strong  that  they  could  not  be 
broken,  wished  in  their  hearts  that  they  could  go. 

12 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Wives,  sweethearts,  aged  parents,  children, 
happy  homes,  friends,  incomes,  employments — 
everything  that  the  world  holds  dear — were 
left  behind   in   that  mad   scramble  for  gold. 

Without  a  thought  as  to  the  perils  they  were 
encountering,  old  men,  young  boys  and  even 
women,  who  were  physically  unable  to  endure 
the  rigors  of  the  climate  and  the  hardships, 
rushed  away.  It  was  a  case  of  the  survival  of 
the  fittest.  Thousands  never  reached  their 
goal,  and  other  thousands  who  were  more 
successful  were  unprepared  for  the  hardships 
to  be  endured. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  so  many  died,  but  I  have 
always  felt  that  some  measure  should  have 
been  taken  by  the  government  to  prevent  that 
great  loss  of  life.  It  was  useless;  it  served  no 
purpose,  and  somebody  was  responsible.  As 
time  goes  by  and  I  reflect,  I  am  beginning  to 
feel  that  some  inhuman  brute  organized  that 
mad  gold-rush  for  selfish  gain;  my  reasons  for 
thinking  thus  will  appear  as  this  record  unfolds. 

When  the  first  reports  of  the  gold  strike 
reached  the  States  I  was  living  in  upper  New 
York  City.  The  continued  exploitation  in  the 
papers  of  gold  finds  caused  almost  every  man  to 
think  of  venturing  into  the  frozen  north.  Almost 

13 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

every  man  I  met  talked  of  it  and  would  say, 
"If  I  had  money  enough  I  would  go."  I  had 
always  been  from  childhood  of  a  roving  and 
adventurous  disposition  and  these  stories  of 
untold  treasures  in  Alaska  took  possession  of 
me  and  I  was  soon  afflicted  with  the  craze. 
I  imparted  my  desires  to  my  father-in-law  and 
was  pleased  to  learn  his  opinion  that  if  anyone 
could  endure  the  trip  that  that  person  was  I. 
That  clinched  the  matter.  I  decided  finally 
to  go  to  the  Klondyke. 

At  that  time  parties  were  forming  everywhere. 
The  gold  craze  seemed  to  be  sweeping  everything 
before  it.  Men  left  for  that  unexplored  country 
with  insufficient  equipment — men  who  had 
never  seen  a  snow-shoe  or  a  dog  sled,  who  had 
always  slept  on  soft  mattresses  and  were  accus- 
tomed to  three  meals  a  day,  for  no  one  could 
start  unless  he  had  at  least  $500  and  many  had 
more  than  $5000.  All  of  them  were  sadly 
inexperiened  as  to  what  conditions  they  might 
be  expected  to  meet  in  a  land  where  the  mercury 
drops  to  from  forty  to  seventy  degrees  below 
zero  and  the  nights  are  seven  months  long. 

In  August,   1896,   I  advertised  in  the  New 
York  Herald  for  a  partner  or  two  to  form  a 
mining  company.    The  next  morning  the  post- 
14 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

man  brought  me  no  fewer  than  forty  letters, 
and  more  during  the  day.  They  came  from  men 
in  every  station  of  life — clerks,  policemen, 
firemen,  and  in  three  instances  women  wanted 
to  join  our  party  and  claimed  to  have  sufficient 
funds.  One  letter  came  from  a  friend  of  mine 
who  was  one  of  the  superintendents  of  a  large 
cartridge  factory  at  Bridgeport,  Conn.  Besides 
this,  my  brother-in-law,  a  physician  living  in 
Brooklyn,  and  having  a  lucrative  practice, 
wanted  to  go.  Although  at  first  he  was  one  of 
the  strong  advisers  against  my  going. 

In  two  weeks  we  had  a  party  of  eighteen  men 
organized  and  we  decided  to  start  on  February 
1st,  1897.  Unlike  many  of  the  parties  that  had 
rushed  away  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  our 
party  had  a  faint  idea  of  the  difficulties  it  was 
to  encounter,  and  we  attempted  to  take  every 
preparatory  precaution  possible  and  to  make  the 
venture  a  success.  We  met  every  Sunday  at 
my  home  to  arrange  for  the  trip,  and  in  order  to 
familiarize  ourselves  with  arctic  conditions,  we 
read  books  by  Perry,  Scott  and  Dr.  Kane  on 
North  Pole  expeditions  and  various  other  works. 

We  decided  to  buy  our  outfit  on  the  coast, 
feeling  sure  that  we  could  get  there  just  what 
we  needed.    We  did,  however,  buy  four  large 

15 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

St.  Bernard  dogs  and  two  Newfoundland  dogs, 
which  we  started  to  train  in  upper  New  York 
City  as  soon  as  we  could  get  harness  made  for 
them  and  snow  was  on  the  ground.  We  would 
hitch  them  to  an  old  bob  sled  loaded  with 
lumber  to  make  it  heavy  and  drive  them  for 
several  miles  each  night,  and  one  day,  while  we 
were  thus  engaged,  a  policeman  placed  several 
of  us  under  arrest. 

He  at  first  thought  that  we  were  crazy  and 
our  minds  had  become  unbalanced  by  the 
gold  craze  stories  in  the  papers.  When  he  finally 
learned  his  mistake,  to  save  himself,  he  turned 
us  over  to  the  humane  society  who  brought 
charges  of  cruelty  to  animals  against  us — that 
is,  driving  dogs  in  harness. 

Much  was  being  printed  in  the  papers  about 
our  party  about  this  time,  as  the  reporters  were 
after  us  for  interviews  and  we  had  little  trouble 
in  identifying  ourselves  when  brought  before 
the  judge  and  he  promptly  discharged  us, 
wishing  our  party  success. 

At  last  the  date  for  starting  came,  and  the 
New  York  and  Bridgeport  Mining  Company,  as 
our  party  came  to  be  known,  was  ready.  The 
company  consisted  of  one  mineralogist,  two 
civil  engineers,  two  New  York  policemen,  one 

16 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

physician,  three  toolmakers,  one  tinsmith,  one 
mail  clerk,  five  clerks,  myself  and  my  friend, 
the  factory  superintendent,  every  one  in  good, 
healthy  condition.  Fourteen  of  the  eighteen 
men  were  married.  We  were  all  dressed  alike 
and  wore  big  heavy  special  made  sweaters, 
corduroy  trousers,  large  sombreros  and  heavy 
leather  boots;  each  carried  a  30-30  Winchester 
rifle. 

The  newspapers  had  printed  so  much  about 
our  party  that  on  the  day  set  for  leaving,  an 
immense  crowd  surrounded  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Building,  where  we  gathered  to  make  the  start. 
You  can  imagine  the  parting  as  we  bade  farewell 
to  wives  and  children,  sweethearts,  friends  and 
parents. 

No  one  had  any  idea  of  the  hardships  he  was 
to  encounter;  everyone  was  buoyant  with 
enthusiasm;  yet  as  I  look  back  upon  that  scene 
I  can  again  feel  that  tremor  of  uncertainty  that 
passed  through  us  as  we  thought  of  encountering 
the  unknown.  However  much  those  brave 
women  feared  for  the  safety  of  their  beloved 
ones,  yet  little  did  they  think  when  they  gave 
their  last  parting  kiss  and  spoke  their  last  word 
to  many  of  them  that  it  was  to  be  forever. 

When  we  left  upper  New  York  several 
hundred  persons  accompanied  us  on  the  elevated 

17 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

train  and  to  the  Lehigh  R.  R.  Station  where  we 
took  the  Black  Diamond  Express  for  Buffalo, 
and  from  there  were  soon  on  our  way  to  Chicago. 
All  along  the  route  we  were  sought  for  interviews 
by  newspaper  men  who  questioned  us  as  to  our 
intentions  and  prospects.  We  must  have  looked 
like  a  husky  bunch,  all  dressed  alike  in  sweaters 
and  boots. 

Between  Chicago  and  St.  Paul  we  had  all 
kinds  of  trouble  with  our  dogs,  which  had  to  be 
fed  and  watered,  and  when  the  train  stopped  for 
a  few  minutes  we  had  to  take  turns  at  running 
them  a  little.  They  whined  and  howled  and 
the  baggagemen  were  generally  very  much 
pleased  when  we  changed  cars. 

At.  St.  Paul  a  party  of  thirty  or  more  men 
bound  for  the  same  destination  as  we,  came 
aboard  and  soon  a  strong  friendship  grew  up 
between  the  two  parties  which  continued  during 
the  rest  of  the  trip  to  Seattle. 

At  Fargo,  N.  D.,  we  were  held  up  two  days 
while  a  wrecking  train  was  clearing  the  tracks 
of  wreckage  caused  by  a  rear-end  collision  the 
day  before,  when  seven  people  were  killed  and 
many  were  injured.  It  took  us  nine  days  to 
reach  Seattle,  but  in  spite  of  the  delays  and 
the  trouble  with  the  dogs,  everyone  seemed  to 

18 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

be  in  good  spirits  when  we  got  there  and   we 
were  enthusiastic  to  go  on. 

It  had  been  said  that  the  gold  rush  made 
Seattle,  and  I  truly  believe  it.  But  I  shudder  to 
think  of  the  cost  in  human  life  and  misery.  Dur- 
ing the  gold  rush  that  western  city  was  more 
wicked  than  Sodom;  the  devil  reigned  supreme. 
It  was  a  gigantic  chaos  of  crime  and  the  city 
government  as  an  institution  protected  evil. 
Every  kind  of  illicit  business  flourished.  License 
trod  all  law  under  foot  in  its  grasping  and  never- 
satisfied  greed.  Every  possible  form  of  decep- 
tion was  practiced  with  the  full  consent  of  the 
city  government,  apparently.  Thousands  of 
gold  seekers  spent  their  money  for  worthless 
fakes  and  they  never  knew  they  had  been 
deceived  until  too  late;  soon  their  frozen 
corpses  told  the  story  of  man's  inhumanity  to 
man  and  its  awful  price. 

Our  first  impression  when  we  alighted  from  our 
train  in  Seattle  was  that  the  city  was  over- 
crowded, and  we  soon  learned  that  there  was 
no  chance  of  getting  hotel  accommodations. 
We  searched  for  lodgings  until  we  were  tired 
and  about  to  give  up  in  despair,  when  someone 
directed  us  to  a  stable  that  was  being  converted 
into  a  lodging  place.     Cots  so  small  that  one 

19 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

could  not  lay  comfortably  upon  them  were 
placed  six  in  a  room,  and  besides  the  cot  each 
man  was  given  a  tin  basin  and  stool;  for  this 
service  he  was  charged  $1.00  per  night.  The 
only  place  to  get  water  was  at  a  hydrant  which 
had  been  used  for  washing  wagons.  It  was  a  hard 
life  already,  but  no  one  complained  and  everyone 
seemed  to  be  willing  to  do  his  part. 

With  no  better  accommodations  in  prospect 
we  settled  down  to  make  the  best  of  it  and 
prepare  for  our  expedition  to  Alaska.  One 
man  was  selected  each  day  to  watch  our  rooms 
and  dogs  which  were  tied  just  outside  in  the  hall. 
The  place  was  worse  than  a  barn,  but  everyone 
was  willing  and  did  his  part  and  thus  our  troubles 
were  minimized. 

A  committee  of  four  were  selected  to  do  all 
the  purchasing  and  to  secure  transportation 
and  as  one  of  the  committee  I  shall  never  forget 
the  experience.  Previous  to  that  time  I  thought 
that  nothing  could  surprise  a  New  Yorker. 
But  I  was  sadly  deluded  and  to  my  sorrow. 
While  our  experience  in  New  York  did  us  great 
service  in  preventing  our  being  swindled  and 
spending  all  our  money  for  stuff  that  was  of  no 
value,  still  we  were  relieved  of  hundreds  of 
dollars   through   schemes   that   looked   to   be 

20 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

perfectly  good  until  we  got  to  Alaska  and  found 
that  we  had  been  defrauded  in  every  way. 

At  that  time  the  city  of  Seattle  was  a  mael- 
strom of  raving  humanity  driven  half  insane 
by  the  desire  for  gold.  Between  1800  and  2000 
people  from  all  over  the  world  were  there 
clamoring  for  transportation  to  Alaska  when 
there  was  none.  Money  was  plentiful  and  fabu- 
lous prices  were  asked  for  everything.  Every 
scheme,  legal  and  illegal,  mostly  illegal,  ever 
devised  by  mortal  to  separate  a  man  from  his 
money  was  run  "wide  open."  Unspeakable 
dives,  houses  of  ill-fame  existed  on  every  block 
in  the  business  section  and  women  under  the 
protection  of  the  police  solicited  business  every- 
where. Gambling  houses,  saloons  and  disorderly 
houses  were  run  in  notorious  defiance  of  the 
law  and  under  the  same  roof.  Many  pick- 
pockets, professional  gamblers  and  gunmen 
collected  about  these  places  like  flies  about  a 
cider  jug,  and  would  not  stop  at  murder — to  say 
nothing  of  lesser  crimes. 

Everything  imaginable  for  use  in  gold  mining 
and  arctic  expeditions  was  offered  for  sale- 
Fakers  filled  the  streets  and  hawked  their 
wares  which  consisted  of  compasses,  mercury, 
worthless  contraptions  for  locating  and  testing 

21 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

gold  and  a  thousand  and  one  things  which  were 
found  to  be  absolutely  worthless. 

Agents  solicited  business  everywhere.  They 
sold  anything  from  a  portable  house  to  a  con- 
densed form  of  vegetable.  Evaporated  foods 
seemed  to  be  a  favorite  with  the  confidence  men; 
evaporated  potatoes,  beans,  fruits  and  even 
evaporated  eggs — I  remember  distinctly  how 
we  were  deceived  into  buying  100  pounds  of  the 
eggs.  The  agent  poured  some  of  the  yellow 
powder  out  and  cooked  it.  It  tasted  like 
scrambled  eggs  which  indeed  it  was,  but  it  was 
all  a  sleight-of-hand  trick  for  the  stuff  we  paid 
for  was  yellow  corn  meal.  Although  we  were 
very  careful,  many  of  the  supplies  we  bought 
were  worthless. 

A  United  States  Government  store  was  opened 
in  Seattle  at  that  time,  where  old  army  equip- 
ment, consisting  of  tents,  blankets,  knap-sacks, 
etc.,  were  sold.  Much  of  this  stuff  was  worn  out 
and  useless  but  it  was  eagerly  bought  by  the 
gold-blinded  crowds.  The  men  who  came  from 
the  east  were  not  so  easily  deceived,  but  many 
parties  spent  all  their  money  for  worthless 
trash  and  some  never  got  further  than  Seattle. 
One  party  from  Texas,  which  later  took  passage 
for  Alaska  with  us  had  been  so  badly  fleeced 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

by  the  confidence  men,  and  had  bought  so  much 
worthless  stuff  that  much  of  it  had  to  be  left 
behind.  I  think  sometimes  that  almost  as  much 
money  was  left  in  Seattle  by  the  gold  seekers  as 
was  ever  recovered  those  two  years.  The  real 
gold  mine  was  in  Seattle. 

While  we  were  engaged  in  purchasing  our 
outfit,  we  were  also  attempting  to  secure 
passage  to  Alaska.  We  soon  found  that  every 
available  craft  had  been  engaged  weeks  ahead 
and  it  looked  as  if  we  were  doomed  to  remain 
several  weeks  in  Seattle.  Everyone  in  our  party 
was  anxious  to  push  on,  as  was  that  great  army 
of  2000  men,  impatient  and  blinded  by  the 
prospect  of  riches. 

Dan  Collins,  the  former  New  York  policeman 
of  our  party,  in  talking  with  one  of  the  United 
States  Custom  Inspectors,  was  told  of  an  old 
brig  tied  up  at  Tacoma,  across  the  inlet  from 
Seattle  that  could  be  chartered  for  a  good  sum. 
We  looked  the  old  hull  over  and  learned  that  it 
had  been  condemned  by  the  Government  two 
years  before.  She  was  a  square-rigged  brig- 
antine,  140  feet  long  with  a  twenty  foot  beam, 
and  was  owned  by  the  Oceanic  Packing  Company 
of  Seattle,  Wash. 

We  were  blinded,  no  doubt,  by  our  desire  to 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

get  to  Alaska  and  did  not  see  any  defects.  We 
were  informed  that  it  could  be  put  into  condi- 
tion, manned  by  a  crew  and  taken  to  Alaska  for 
$5000.00.  This  sounded  good  to  us,  as  we  had 
planned  to  get  together  several  parties  and 
thereby  divide  the  expense.  Ship  carpenters 
were  set  to  work  at  once,  while  we  scurried 
about  getting  a  party  from  Manchester,  Conn., 
the  St.  Paul  party  and  later  a  party  from 
Dennison,  Texas,  one  hundred  men  in  all,  who 
were  as  anxious  as  we. 


24 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Provisions  Secured.    Start  Is  Made  in  Boafy  Life 

Aboard  the  Rotten  Brig  Blakely  Proves  To 

Be  a  Miserable  Experience.     One  Sailor 

Lost  and  Gold  Seeker  Dies.    Dories  and 

Dog  Crates  Are  Washed  Away  and 

Give   Rise   to   the  Story  That  the 

Entire  Crew  Perished. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HE  old  boat  was  given  a  daub  of 
paint  here  and  there,  a  deck-house 
was  built  amidship  for  fifty  of  the 
men  and  extra  bunks  were  put  in 
the  forecastle.  Two  men  were  to 
sleep  in  each  bunk  and  they  were 
built  three  high,  with  barely  room 
enough  to  crawl  into.  The  galley 
or  cook-house  was  aft  and  just  large  enough  for 
two  or  three  to  move  about  in.  She  was  towed 
to  a  dock  in  Seattle  and  it  was  very  noticeable 
that  she  lay  very  low  in  the  water. 

Eight  days  after  we  had  engaged  her,  she 
was  pronounced  ready  for  the  voyage  and  was 
to  be  manned  by  Captain  McAfee,  Mate  Jung 
and  three  sailors  who  I  am  sure  did  little  deep 
sea  sailing.    There  was  also  a  cook  and  a  colored 

25 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

assistant.  While  the  repairs  were  being  made, 
large  crowds  were  always  on  the  wharf  willing 
to  take  passage  with  us  at  any  price. 

In  the  meantime  we  had  secured  all  our  pro- 
visions, tools,  and  other  goods  from  the  Seattle 
Trading  Company.  Each  man  was  allowed 
1000  pounds,  baggage  included.  A  portion  of 
our  outfit  consisted  of  beans,  pork,  bacon,  flour 
and  many  evaporated  articles,  such  as  potatoes, 
apples,  beef  tea,  tea  and  coffee.  We  had  special 
tents  and  sleds  made,  all  sorts  of  mining  tools 
and  ropes,  snow-shoes  and  sleeping  bags  and 
other  needed  articles. 

The  dogs,  now  thirty  in  number,  which  had 
been  fattened  up  during  our  stay  in  Seattle, 
were  placed  on  the  deck-house  in  crates  with 
the  owner's  name  on  each  crate.  All  hands 
helped  to  get  the  goods  aboard.  When  we  had 
loaded  everything  on  board  for  the  whole  party, 
the  boat  was  down  in  the  water  nearly  to  her 
scupper  holes  or  nearly  to  the  main  deck,  as 
she  lay  in  the  calm  waters  of  Puget  Sound. 

Guarded  from  the  old  gray  Pacific  Ocean  by 
mountainous  promontories  and  caressed  by 
gentle  breezes,  Puget  Sound  is  a  body  of  water 
of  rare  beauty.  To  the  person  whose  mind  is  at 
peace  with  the  world  and  who  looks  upon  it 

26 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

with  an  eye  receptive  to  beauty,  it  imparts  a 
charm  all  its  own — a  charm  that  cannot  well  be 
expressed  in  words,  for  it  exists  nowhere  else. 
The  sunshine  seems  to  enter  into  a  conspiracy 
with  it,  and  the  cloud  shadows  play  hide-and- 
seek  upon  its  surface  and  even  when  it  rains  the 
drops  of  water  dance  upon  the  tilting  wavelets 
in  a  joyous  fashion.  It  is  indeed  a  gigantic 
playground  of  nature  enclosed  in  a  marvelous 
setting  of  wooded  hills  and  far-away  mountains. 
But  we  saw  none  of  this. 

With  nothing  but  the  desire  for  gold  in  his 
heart  man  degenerates  into  a  beast.  He  sees 
nothing,  appreciates  nothing,  thinks  nothing 
but  gold.  It  is  the  guiding  star  of  his  existence, 
the  spur  of  his  ambition;  it  takes  possession  of 
his  soul,  engenders  selfishness,  deadens  his 
moral  sense  and  projects  him  into  a  state  of 
insane  madness,  which  is  akin  to  being  under  a 
hypnotic  influence. 

When  that  old  rotten  hulk,  loaded  down  with 
almost  all  our  worldly  possessions,  was  towed  out 
to  Dungeoness  Point  on  the  twenty-fourth  day 
of  February,  1897,  we  had  but  a  single  thought — 
Alaska.  All  worked  with  the  strength  of  a 
Hercules  to  get  the  cargo  aboard;  we  had  lost 
sleep  and  had  not  taken  time  to  eat  in  order  to 

27 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

get  away;  we  were  tired,  wretched,  hungry,  but 
we  did  not  know  it.  Above,  beyond,  far  out 
upon  that  green  expanse  of  water  was  our 
goal — Alaska. 

Although  impatient  to  proceed,  we  lowered 
anchor  for  the  night  and  as  I  stop  a  moment  in 
retrospection  and  think  how  that  wretched 
company  of  men  forgot  everything  in  a  sort  of 
wild  frenzy — everything  but  the  dictation  of  a 
blind  faith  that  they  had  given  up  every  other 
consideration  to  follow — it  all  seems  a  vain, 
weird,  jumbled  memory. 

The  things  that  seemed  so  commonplace  and 
important  then  as  we  lay  there  in  the  peaceful 
water  of  the  Sound  as  the  boat  tugged  at  its 
anchor  and  swayed  and  tilted  with  the  motion 
of  the  sea,  have  faded  into  insignificance  now. 
That  wild  impatience  that  caused  us  to  walk  the 
deck  when  we  should  have  been  at  rest,  that 
longing  to  reach  our  goal  kept  our  jaded  nerves 
on  edge  and  filled  our  minds  so  full  of  thoughts 
we  could  not  sleep;  that  alluring  prospect 
made  us  forget  all  we  left  behind — wives, 
parents,  homes,  friends,  civilization.  We  could 
see  but  one  thing — gold.  All  this  is  but  an 
incident  now,  but  it  was  very  real  then. 

It  is  no  wonder,  that  before  the  sun  arose 
above  the  eastern  mountain  next  morning,  we 

28 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

set  sail  and  rejoiced  in  a  weird  way  as  the 
Blakely  moved  slowly  out  over  the  water.  We 
sailed  that  day  to  Port  Angules,  and  before  we 
had  been  on  our  journey  an  hour,  some  of  those 
aboard  who  had  never  been  to  sea  before  were 
beginning  to  lose  their  impatient  frenzy  in  the 
delirium  of.  seasickness.  The  party  from  Texas 
suffered  most,  and  after  the  first  afternoon  on 
board  I  do  not  think  they  appeared  on  deck  for 
a  meal. 

Although  the  sea  was  not  rough  the  first  day 
out  and  the  boat  was  extremely  heavily  laden, 
it  rolled  and  dipped  and  rode  the  waves  in  a 
bewildering  manner,  and  there  were  very  few 
men  aboard  except  the  sailors  and  myself  who 
were  not  affected.  The  captain  who  had  been 
on  a  glorious  drunk,  and  had  brought  several 
bottles  of  whiskey  aboard  with  him,  kept  to  his 
cabin  and  did  not  appear  until  he  had  consumed 
all  the  booze. 

During  the  first  day  of  our  journey  the  dogs 
must  have  become  seasick  too,  for  they  howled 
and  whined  piteously;  their  imploring  cries 
rose  above  the  creaking  and  clattering  of  the 
boat  and  the  swish  of  the  waters  as  we  bowled 
along.  It  produced  a  pandemonium  that  was 
most   distressing. 

29 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Although  our  meals  consisted  of  nothing  but 
beans  and  coffee,  the  cooks  had  much  trouble  in 
preparing  them.  Three  times  a  day  those  of  us 
who  had  our  sea  legs — and  the  number  began 
to  diminish  immediately — would  line  up  on  one 
side  of  the  boat  with  a  tin  plate  in  one  hand  and 
a  tin  cup  in  the  other.  As  we  passed  on  the 
outside  of  the  galley  or  cook-house,  the  cook 
reached  out  of  a  window  and  slapped  a  spoonful 
of  mushy  beans  on  each  man's  plate.  The  line 
passed  on  around  to  the  other  side  of  the  cook- 
house, where  from  another  window  each  man 
was  served  with  coffee,  which  was  poured  from 
a  big  kettle  into  his  tin  cup. 

After  leaving  Seattle  our  boat  was  followed 
by  many  sea-gulls  which  perched  on  the  yard- 
arms  and  watched  for  something  to  be  thrown 
into  the  water.  With  much  flapping  of  wings 
they  would  swoop  down  and  recover  anything 
in  the  way  of  food  that  was  thrown  in  the  sea, 
and  their  presence  soon  came  to  be  somewhat 
uncanny.  We  sailed  along  before  a  stiff  breeze 
for  the  next  three  days  and  they  gradually 
disappeared;  by  the  time  we  reached  Cape 
Flattery,  on  February  29th,  there  was  not  a 
gull  to  be  seen. 

It  was  also  about  this  time  that  some  of  the 
real  hardships  of  the  expedition  began  to  make 

30 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

themselves  apparent,  and  even  the  bravest 
among  us  feared  that  we  would  never  reach 
Alaska.  An  increasing  number  of  our  party 
who  had  been  suffering  from  seasickness,  grew 
worse  and  failed  to  come  up  for  their  meals. 
Those  of  us  who  were  still  able  to  navigate, 
carried  water  and  food  to  the  rest  who  could  not 
leave  their  bunks. 

No  one  but  he  who  has  experienced  it  can 
imagine  what  real  seasickness  is.  The  first  two 
or  three  days  the  victim  is  so  sick  that  he  fears 
he  is  going  to  die;  then  a  change  comes  over  him 
and  he  resigns  himself  to  the  inevitable.  He 
loses  all  hope,  all  ambition,  all  fear,  all  self- 
respect,  all  interest,  even  in  himself,  and  his 
most  earnest  wish  if  he  has  any,  is  that  he 
were    dead. 

At  first  the  men  stuck  to  their  work  while  the 
delirium  which  was  raging  within  them  made  life 
almost  unbearable.  Wild-eyed  and  sullen,  they 
would  stagger  to  the  edge  of  the  boat  and  hang- 
ing there,  would  offer  a  prolonged  gastronomic 
sacrifice  to  the  sea.  But  when  they  reached  the 
second  stage  of  their  sickness,  they  remained  in 
their  bunks  and  the  result  was  revolting  beyond 
belief.  The  stench  that  arose  from  the  fore- 
castle, where  the  men  lay  huddled  together, 

31 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

permeated  every  part  of  the  boat  and  was 
unbearable.  I  have  often  wondered  since  how 
those  men  managed  to  live  at  all. 

During  all  this  time  the  sea  had  been  running 
higher  and  higher  and  the  waves  were  beginning 
to  wash  over  the  decks.  The  Blakely  was 
leaking  badly  when  we  left  Seattle  and  the 
syphon  pumps  had  been  working  steadily  all 
the  time.  Now,  in  order  to  keep  our  boat  from 
going  down,  everyone  who  could  stand  up  was 
compelled  to  assist  in  operating  the  hand  pumps. 

The  supply  of  whiskey  that  the  captain  had 
brought  aboard  became  exhausted  about  this 
time  and  he  appeared  on  deck  for  the  first  time. 
The  captain  was  a  capable  officer  when  not 
drinking,  and  I  feel  now  that  his  taking  charge 
at  this  time  prevented  us  from  being  lost.  It 
was  on  account  of  his  intemperance  that  he 
was  not  commander  of  a  larger  vessel  at  sea 
and  that  he  could  be  obtained  to  captain  the 
vessel  when  we  left  Seattle. 

Conditions  continued  to  grow  worse  and  on 
March  3rd  a  number  of  the  dogs  belonging  to 
the  Texas  party  died  and  were  cast  overboard. 
The  rest  of  the  canines  which  had  been  howling 
and  whining  day  and  night  for  more  than  a  week, 
grew    quiescent   from   sheer   exhaustion.      To 

32 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

make  matters  worse  a  member  of  the  party 
from  Texas  fell  seriously  ill  and  my  brother-in- 
law,  Dr.  Bolton,  announced  that  there  was  little 
chance  for  his  recovery.  He  had  eaten  nothing 
for  eight  days  and  with  the  old  boat  rolling  and 
swaying  with  the  high  sea  he  suffered  untold 
agony. 

Still  we  continued  our  journey  not  without 
hope.  The  winds  began  to  blow  a  hurricane, 
the  sea  arose  like  a  great  mountain  of  devouring 
green  and  rushed  upon  us.  Great  waves  dashed 
over  the  boat  and  completely  covered  it  with 
spray.  One  minute  the  Blakely  rode  on  the 
white  crest  of  a  great  hill  of  water,  and  the  next 
it  was  lost  in  a  valley  of  the  same  element. 
The  old  hull  creaked  and  groaned  and  rolled 
about  aimlessly  and  I  was  sure  it  was  only  a 
matter  of  minutes  before  it  would  fall  to  pieces. 

During  the  latter  part  of  February  and  the 
most  of  March  a  terrific  storm,  known  as  the 
equinoxial,  passes  over  the  Pacific.  It  consists 
of  wind,  rain,  hail  and  sleet  and  every  sailor  who 
has  once  experienced  it  never  cares  to  encounter 
the  storm  again.  Instead  of  blowing  steadily 
from  one  direction,  the  wind  shifts  continually 
and  passes  over  the  surface  of  the  water  with  a 
whirling  motion  like  a  series  of  miniature 
tornadoes. 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

It  was  this  storm  that  the  Blakely  encountered 
on  March  6th  and  was  blown  about  like  an 
egg-shell  in  a  hurricane  for  four  whole  days. 
How  we  ever  managed  to  keep  that  old  hull 
afloat,  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  me.  The 
normal  surface  of  the  sea  was  on  a  level  with 
the  main  deck  and  every  wave  that  came  along 
broke  over  us  twenty  feet  or  more,  drenching  us 
to  the  skin,  throwing  a  great  volume  of  water 
into  the  hold  and  forecastle  and  leaving  a  blind- 
ing salt  spray  behind  that  would  not  clear  before 
another  big  wave  broke  over  us. 

On  March  7th  the  storm  reached  its  height 
and  ever  since  my  return  from  the  Klondyke, 
my  family  and  myself  have  observed  that  day  as 
a  holiday  in  commemoration  of  my  deliverance. 
Those  of  us  who  had  our  sea  legs  had  had  very 
little  rest  for  several  days,  being  continually  at 
the  pumps  which  had  to  be  operated  constantly 
in  order  to  prevent  the  boat  from  sinking.  Our 
clothes  were  water  soaked,  and  we  were  cold, 
tired,  hungry  and  wretched. 

Those  below  were  even  in  a  worse  plight;  we 
could  keep  warm  through  exercise,  but  they  had 
to  lay  in  water  soaked  bunks  and  shiver  with  the 
cold.  To  make  matters  worse,  the  water  put 
out  the  cook's  fire  soon  after  the  storm  began 

34 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

and  for  several  days  we  could  get  little  or  nothing 
to  eat.  I  have  often  wondered  since  how  we  ever 
managed  to  live  through  it  without  contracting 
pneumonia  but  I  think  the  dry  atmosphere 
which  we  reached  soon  after  the  storm  abated, 
saved  us. 

While  the  storm  raged  with  relentless  fury, 
the  menacing  clouds  hung  low  and  we  held  on 
to  that  rotten  hull  like  grim  death — expecting 
every  moment  to  be  hurled  to  our  doom  in  that 
wilderness  of  angry  waters — one  of  our  best 
sailors,  Joe  Creeg,  was  ordered  aloft  to  clear 
away  a  broken  spar  which  was  dangling  over 
the  deck-house.  Suddenly  he  disappeared;  he 
had  fallen  from  the  yard-arm  into  the  ocean. 
It  was  impossible  to  turn  about  as  we  were 
completely  at  the  mercy  of  the  sea.  The  storm 
had  blown  away  the  top-mast  and  jib-sail,  the 
rotten  ropes  parting  like  cotton  threads,  and 
we  were  sailing  under  bare  poles  about  eight 
knots  an  hour. 

I  got  one  glimpse  of  the  poor  fellow,  with 
arms  and  legs  outstretched,  as  he  started  to  fall, 
and  almost  instantly  his  form  was  screened  by 
the  spray.  If  he  made  any  out-cry  it  was 
drowned  in  the  roar  of  the  storm.  The  loss  of 
the  brave  fellow  distressed  us  but  a  moment. 

37 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

We  looked  imploringly  at  the  rolling  sea,  hoping 
to  get  one  last  glimpse  of  him  and  wondered 
that  there  was  not  one  possible  chance  of  rescu- 
ing the  poor  fellow.  Then  suddenly  the  utter 
futility  of  the  thing  dawned  upon  us  and  the 
reality  of  our  danger  broke  the  spell  that  had 
held  us  and  we  continued  pumping. 

The  storm  caused  three  of  our  dories  to  break 
away  from  the  davits  aft,  and  washed  ten 
crates  of  the  dogs  overboard,  including  two  of 
my  own  canines.  Besides  this,  the  rolling  of  the 
ship  caused  our  cargo  to  list  to  one  side,  and  I 
was  sure  we  were  going  to  capsize. 

In  our  hurry  to  get  away  from  Seattle  we 
packed  our  goods  and  provisions  in  the  hold 
ourselves,  and  not  being  experienced  stevedores* 
it  is  no  wonder  we  had  trouble.  We  tried  to 
remedy  it  as  best  we  could,  however,  and  under 
the  direction  of  the  captain,  moved  a  portion  of 
the  goods  back  to  the  other  side  of  the  boat  and 
in  that  manner  partially  restored  its  equilibrium 
and  gave  us  a  fighting  chance. 

By  this  time  we  were  in  a  pitiable  state  and 
the  condition  of  the  poor  fellows  in  the  cabin 
and  forecastle  was  even  more  distressing.  Having 
lain  in  their  bunks  for  more  than  a  week,  not 

38 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

caring  whether  the  boat  sank  or  not,  their 
condition  was  so  revolting  that  I  will  not  attempt 
to  describe  it. 

Our  dories  and  dog  crates  and  other  wreckage 
floated  out  upon  the  sea  and  some  time  later 
were  noticed  by  sailors  on  a  passing  vessel,  who, 
reading  the  name  of  the  Blakely  on  the  dories 
which  they  picked  up,  concluded  that  our  boat 
had  sunk  and  we  were  all  lost. 

They  reported  their  story  upon  reaching 
Seattle  and  it  was  printed  in  the  newspapers  all 
over  the  country.  My  wife  and  relatives,  as 
well  as  the  relatives  and  friends  of  all  the  rest 
of  the  party,  read  the  story  and  after  waiting 
for  a  time  and  getting  no  word  from  any  of  us 
and  learning  that  the  boat  on  which  we  sailed 
was  not  seaworthy,  having  been  a  condemned 
boat,  accepted  it  as  the  truth.  Had  we  suspected 
this  as  we  fought  the  elements  in  our  desperation 
it  would  no  doubt  have  made  the  outlook  more 
gloomy  than  it  really  was. 

On  March  9th,  the  storm  abated  and  the 
calm  gave  us  a  faint  hope  of  reaching  our 
destination.  The  cooks  managed  to  build  a 
fire  and  we  got  the  first  meal  of  coffee  and  beans 
that  we  had  had  in  five  days,  and  it  cheered  us 
considerably.    The  member  of  the  Texas  party, 

39 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

whose  condition  became  grave  before  the  storm, 
died  as  the  storm  waned  the  night  before,  and 
that  day  I  witnessed  my  first  burial  at  sea. 

The  sailors  sewed  the  body  up  in  a  piece  of 
old  sail  cloth,  weighted  it  with  a  piece  of  chain. 
After  a  prayer  by  Fred  Weigan,  of  our  party, 
the  captain  gave  the  order  and  it  was  dropped 
into  the  sea.  As  I  think  of  that  solemn  incident 
in  retrospect,  its  sadness,  that  I  could  not 
recognize  then,  dawns  upon  me.  The  pathos  of 
horror  of  that  simple  funeral  which  seemed  so 
commonplace  did  not  appeal  to  me  then  and  it 
was  long  afterwards  that  I  began  to  appreciate 
the  human  misery  and  suffering  that  I  had  seen. 


40 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


A    School    of    Whales   Sighted.     Seasick    Men 

Recover  Somewhat     Wonderful  Sight  Greets 

Passengers  of  Blakely  as  Mountains  of 

Alaska  Become  Visible.     Huge  Icebergs 

Loom  Up.  NativesComeOuttoMeetUs. 

CHAPTER  III. 

SPENT  a  few  days  following  the 
storm,  helping  the  mate  and  the  two 
sailors  to  mend  the  sails  which  had 
been  torn  almost  to  shreds  by  the 
storm.  For  more  than  a  week  we 
sailed  steadily  northward  and  the 
men  who  had  been  so  badly  seasick 
began  to  recover  somewhat  as  the 
sea  remained  calm.  They  began  to  realize  their 
condition  and  as  they  staggered  or  were  helped 
up  from  the  forecastle  and  cabin  they  were  indeed 
pitiable  sights.  Some  of  them  had  not  eaten 
anything  for  nearly  two  weeks.  Their  clothes 
were  mouldy  and  foul  smelling  and  the  greater 
part  of  their  apparel  had  to  be  thrown  away. 
Some  of  the  men  were  nearly  frozen.  An  at- 
tempt was  made  to  build  a  fire  in  the  forecastle 
in  a  small  stove  that  had  been  there,  but  the 
rolling  of  the  vessel  and  the  water  coming  from 
above  prevented  it. 

41 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

The  sea  was  fairly  calm  and  we  were  gradually 
nearing  our  goal.  Soon  we  were  to  be  richly 
repaid  for  all  our  troubles!  The  mate  told  us  we 
were  in  Alaskan  waters  and  this  had  a  wonder- 
fully encouraging  effect.  On  March  17th,  while 
running  through  great  fields  of  small  ice,  we 
sighted  our  first  school  of  whales;  a  long  black 
object  rising  here  and  there  above  the  surface 
of  the  water  like  a  boat  upside  down. 

It  was  indeed  a  strange  sight  to  watch  that 
big  black  hulk  far  off  near  the  horizon  throw  a 
stream  of  spray  high  into  the  air  and  then 
gradually  sink  into  the  sea.  There  were  also 
schools  of  porpoise  that  always  seemed  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  bow  of  the  boat.  They  ranged 
from  four  to  eight  feet  and  jumped  and  turned 
about  in  the  water  in  such  a  manner  as  to  pro- 
duce a  beautiful  kaleidoscopic  picture  that  we 
used  to  watch  for  hours. 

On  March  19th,  a  heavy  snow  storm  began. 
The  snow  was  wet  and  stuck  to  the  rigging  until 
a  large  mass  had  been  collected,  and  then  would 
fall  to  the  deck  and  cause  all  kinds  of  trouble, 
and  we  could  not  see  three  feet  in  front  of  us. 
In  spite  of  this,  those  of  us  who  were  on  our  feet 
attempted  to  make  life  a  little  more  endurable 
for  those  that  were  sick.    Both  of  the  physicians 

42 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

on  board  were  as  sick  as  the  rest,  so  that  they 
were  only  able  to  give  directions  and  we  followed 
them  as  best  we  could.  Despite  all  our  efforts, 
the  condition  in  the  cabin  and  forecastle  re- 
mained as  revolting  as  ever. 

We  had  now  been  on  the  water  for  twenty-four 
days  and  had  not  yet  sighted  land.  Yakutat, 
our  destination,  was  only  seventy-five  miles 
away,  however.  According  to  the  captain,  we 
expected  to  sight  land  at  any  time.  The  snow 
storm,  which  began  the  day  before,  continued 
and  sometimes  the  snowfall  was  so  dense  it  was 
impossible  to  see  but  a  few  feet  ahead. 

Later  the  weather  cleared  somewhat  and  we 
sighted  numerous  icebergs  and  floes  of  small  ice. 
Some  of  these  icebergs  were  immense.  They 
looked  to  me  like  white  islands  of  ice  with 
ranges  of  ghostly  mountains  rising  up  out  of  the 
sea.  The  scene  was  rarely  beautiful,  but  withal 
cold,  desolate  and  uncompromising. 

As  we  drew  near,  the  immensity  of  the  bergs 
almost  overwhelmed  our  senses.  There  before 
us,  or  along  side  of  us,  was  a  great  wall  of  ice, 
thirty  to  seventy  feet  high,  and  for  every  foot 
that  is  above  water,  there  is  seven  below. 

Many  sea-gulls  were  again  following  the  ship, 
floating  overhead  without  a  movement  of  their 

45 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

wings  like  a  fleet  of  aeroplanes.  Some  of  the 
men  were  again  getting  their  sea-legs.  We  grew 
tired  of  having  the  gulls  always  flying  over  the 
ship  and  wanted  to  shoot  them,  but  the  captain 
forbade  it,  saying  such  action  would  mean  an 
ill  omen. 

The  weather  grew  colder  and  the  men  who 
were  compelled  to  keep  continually  at  the  pumps 
with  wet  clothing  suffered  greatly.  The  Blakely, 
which  for  two  years  had  been  sitting  high  and 
dry  on  the  beach  at  Tacoma,  was  beginning  to 
get  water-logged  and  sank  lower  in  the  water, 
and  again  we  began  to  fear  that  we  would  not 
get  her  into  port. 

Few  of  us  had  slept  for  several  days,  in  our 
anxiety  to  get  a  glimpse  of  land,  which  the 
captain  assured  us  was  very  near.  At  last  he 
announced  that  he  had  sighted  Mt.  St.  Elias, 
the  highest  peak  in  Alaska,  and  we  took  turns 
with  the  telescope.  Gradually  the  great  white 
mountain  took  shape  in  the  hazy  blue  far  above 
the  horizon. 

It  was  shaped  like  the  top  of  a  pyramid  and 
standing  there  immovable  in  the  sky.  The  sight 
was  indeed  awe-inspiring.  The  sea  reached  out 
from  us  to  meet  the  sky  as  before;  there  was 
no  land  in  sight  and  the  base  of  the  mountain 

46 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

was  lost  in  haze;  but  there,  hanging  above  and 
beyond  us  like  a  pillow  of  cloud  was  that  awful 
white  mystery  which,  as  we  looked,  seemed  to 
change  imperceptibly  to  a  delicate  shade  of  pink. 

We  watched  this  immovable  mass  for  hours, 
and  then  gradually  the  white  outline  of  a  range 
of  mountains  came  into  view.  As  yet  no  land 
broke  the  horizon.  Above  the  sea  was  the  sky 
on  which  it  seemed  was  painted  the  outline  of 
those  mountains  and  far  above  them  the  great 
peak  of  Mt.  St.  Elias. 

The  whole  thing  seemed  so  unreal  that  for 
a  time  we  thought  we  were  looking  into  another 
world,  and  that  Alaska  was  as  far  away  as  ever. 
But  we  were  fascinated  by  the  overpowering 
grandeur  of  the  scene  and  for  a  time  we  forgot 
the  hardships  through  which  we  had  passed. 
We  even  lost  our  mad  desire  for  gold,  as  we  stood 
there  and  gazed  at  that  incomparable  picture 
in  speechless  wonder. 

Then  gradually  the  horizon  began  to  give  way 
to  an  irregular  beach.  The  outline  of  the 
mountains  seemed  to  lose  its  enchantment  and 
before  we  knew  it  we  were  looking  upon  the 
bleak,  desolate  coast  of  Alaska.  Alaska!  Our 
goal! 

There  before  us  lay  the  dirty  blue  and  white 
mainland  with  here  and  there  a  black  speck. 

47 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

In  the  middle  distance  were  some  forests  and  in 
the  background  those  mountains,  which  had 
assumed  a  commonplace  aspect.  But  far  up  in 
the  sky  above  and  beyond  them  all,  towered 
that  great  white  peak  which  seemed  to  have  no 
base. 

The  whole  picture  looked  to  us  like  heaven! 
Men  who  had  not  moved  for  two  weeks  got  up 
and  shouted  for  joy.  Never  in  my  life  have  I 
looked  upon  so  pleasant  a  picture  as  that  bleak, 
uninviting  coast  of  Alaska.  Everybody  seemed 
imbued  with  new  life  and  with  an  almost  irresis- 
tible desire  to  set  foot  on  land  once  more. 

While  we  watched,  there  came  through  the 
sharp  sea  air  a  long  deafening  roar  like  distant 
thunder  which  resolved  itself  into  a  series  of 
booms  like  the  distant  firing  of  cannon.  For  a 
time  we  were  startled,  but  the  captain  soon 
informed  us  that  the  noise  was  caused  by  ice- 
bergs breaking  away  from  the  Malaspina  glacier. 

The  roar  of  an  avalanche  is  unlike  any  other 
sound  in  the  world.  A  long  peal  of  rolling 
thunder,  punctured  by  the  quick,  irregular 
firing  of  a  distant  cannon,  is  probably  the  nearest 
approach  to  that  roar.  Yet  it  had  a  vibrant 
crashing  note  peculiarly  its  own,  which  thrill, 
terrifies  and  impresses  the  listener  with  the 

48 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

mighty  magnitude  of  those  great  masses  of  ice. 
The  rest  of  that  day,  we  looked  and  listened  and 
wondered  and  almost  forgot  the  object  of 
our  quest. 

The  next  day,  March  23rd,  the  captain  looked 
for  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Yakutat.  He 
was  formally  a  skipper  on  a  whaler  and  had  been 
at  Yakutat  before  for  the  purpose  of  trading  with 
the  natives,  and  he  knew  the  place.  A  high  sea 
was  rolling  and  he  had  some  fears  of  entering  the 
harbor,  but  we  were  all  so  anxious  to  get  ashore 
that  we  insisted  that  he  take  a  chance.  The  sea 
spray  and  snow  had  frozen  fast  to  every  part  of 
the  ship,  covering  it  with  ice  several  inches  thick. 

Granting  our  wish,  the  captain  tacked  the 
vessel  back  and  forth  and  finally  entered  the 
harbor  and  sailed  to  within  a  hundred  feet  of 
the  shore  and  dropped  anchor. 

The  two  remaining  dories  were  lowered  and 
fourteen  of  us  pulled  for  the  shore.  We  had  not 
gone  far  before  we  saw  at  least  ten  canoes  headed 
for  us.  They  contained  the  fur-clad  natives  of 
Yakutat. 

They  paddled  about  our  dories  with  great 
skill  and  ease,  going  entirely  around  us,  but  not 
speaking  a  word.  Their  canoes  were  small,  frail 
and  awkwardly  built,  but  the  natives  managed 

49 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

their  craft  with  the  greatest  ease.  When  a 
wave  would  dash  a  quantity  of  water  into  then- 
canoe,  its  occupant  would  just  give  it  a  peculiar 
shake  or  twist  and  every  drop  of  water  would 
be  thrown  out. 

One  of  the  smaller  canoes  drew  up  along  the 
side  of  our  dory  and  we  were  surprised  to  hear 
its  occupant  address  us  in  English.  He  informed 
us  that  he  was  a  Swedish  Missionary  from 
Chicago,  who  had  been  there  several  years  and 
had  not  seen  a  white  face  for  thirteen  months. 
He  inquired  our  mission  and  when  we  told  him 
we  were  gold  seekers,  he  shook  his  head,  saying 
that  he  had  not  seen  any  gold  all  the  time  he 
had  been  there.  We  informed  him  that  we  were 
going  into  the  interior  about  a  thousand  miles 
toward  the  McKenzie  River. 

As  we  neared  the  shore  we  could  hear  the 
awful  howling  of  about  three  hundred  wolf  dogs 
and  for  a  time  I  was  actually  afraid  they  would 
not  allow  us  to  set  foot  on  shore.  Over  a  small 
hill  beyond  the  beach  we  could  see  a  row  of  huts 
and  several  log  cabins  covered  with  snow  with 
large  totem  poles  in  front. 

When  we  first  set  foot  upon  land,  we  were 
dazed.  I  experienced  a  sensation  that  I  don't 
think  I  ever  felt  either  before  or  since.    After 

50 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

spending  more  than  three  weeks  on  that  rolling 
vessel  we  expected  everything  we  stepped  on  to 
slip  out  from  under  us,  and  when  the  beach  did 
not  do  this,  we  reeled  about  as  if  we  were  drunk. 

In  a  short  time  we  got  our  bearings,  however, 
and  then  to  our  surprise  found  that  the  dogs, 
which  we  expected  would  eat  us  up,  had  dis- 
appeared over  the  hill  and  had  stopped  howling. 


53 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


On  Land  Once  More.     The  Missionary  Invites 

Us  to  Bring  Sick  Men  to  His  Chapel.    The 

Men  and  Dogs  Feasted  on  Plenty  of  Fish 

Furnished    by    Natives.      A    Realistic 

Prayer    Service.      Wonderful    Totem 

Poles. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HE  missionary  whose  name  was  Mr. 
Johnson,  who  was  of  a  short  stocky- 
stature,  led  us  to  his  home  and 
chapel  a  short  distance  from  where 
we  landed;  his  home  was  a  crude 
frame  shack,  substantially  built  of 
logs,  but  rather  primitive.  He  ex- 
plained our  mission  to  the  many 
natives  who  had  clustered  around  our  party, 
and  they  in  turn  would  inform  those  that  were 
continually  coming. 

The  Esquimo  who  appeared  to  be  the  chief 
gave  instructions  to  several  men  near  him.  Then 
they  repaired  to  their  canoes,  which  are  also 
known  as  kyacks  or  dug-outs,  each  one  taking 
with  him  a  pole  about  ten  feet  long  and  an  inch 
and  a  half  thick.  About  a  dozen  spikes  were 
driven  through  one  end  of  the  pole,  two  inches 

55 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

apart  and  the  spikes  on  each  side  of  the  pole 
sharpened  to  a  fine  point.  We  asked  Mr. 
Johnson  where  they  were  going  and  he  replied 
that  they  were  going  to  a  lagoon  for  some  fish, 
and  for  the  time  being  we  forgot  all  about  the 
poles. 

In  the  meantime  some  of  our  men  and  the 
sailors  had  been  rowing  back  and  forth  from  the 
boat  bringing  ashore  all  the  men  who  could  be 
possibly  moved.  The  Texas  party  were  in  very 
bad  shape  in  their  filthy  bunks.  Many  of  them 
were  barely  able,  even  with  assistance,  to  walk 
to  the  chapel,  where  a  roaring  fire  had  been 
built  by  the  missionary  in  a  crudely  constructed 
open  fireplace. 

All  the  natives  with  their  children  of  the 
village  gathered  around  and  seemed  pleased  to 
see  us,  but  very  few  of  them  seemed  to  talk  any 
English.  In  talking  their  own  language  they 
would  make  characteristic  guttural  sounds, 
which  seemed  to  require  much  effort  and  we 
sometimes  thought  they  were  choking.  When 
the  missionary  talked  to  them,  he  made  the  same 
deep  sounds  which  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  sort 
of  Chinese  puzzle  in  acoustics. 

The  natives  at  Yakutat  are  known  as  the 
Thlinket  tribe  and  there  were  in  the  village  at 

56 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

this  time  about  two  hundred  and  fifty,  including 
the  children.  It  was  impossible  when  in  their 
fur  garments  to  distinguish  sex,  as  they  looked 
alike  and  talked  alike.  One  seemed  to  be  as 
dirty  as  another,  and  they  all  had  an  ill  smell  of 
fish  about  them.  Their  children  seemed  to  be 
full  of  life  and  would  roll  in  the  snow  and  wrestle 
each  other  and  never  seem  to  get  tired;  their 
games  were  very  simple,  but  while  playing  them 
they  seemed  to  expand  in  joy  as  a  flower  as  it 
expands  when  it  proceeds  from  the  bud. 

Mrs.  Johnson,  the  missionary's  wife,  proved 
to  be  a  kind,  hard-working,  middle-aged  Swedish 
woman,  who  set  about  immediately  to  make  us 
comfortable.  Their  cabin  adjoined  the  chapel, 
which  made  it  very  convenient  for  her  to  cook 
food  on  her  stove  and  bring  it  into  the  chapel  for 
the  famished  men  to  eat.  We  brought  a  quan- 
tity of  coffee  from  the  Blakely,  as  well  as  all  the 
coffee  boilers  and  frying  pans  we  had,  in  readi- 
ness for  the  return  of  the  men  who  had  gone 
after  fish. 

We  had  a  short  time  to  wait  as  they  soon  came 
with  their  canoes  just  filled  with  herring  and 
smelt,  and  I  wondered  then  how  they  got  them 
so  quickly.  But  we  were  all  too  hungry  to 
waste  any  time  in  speculation,  and  we  lost  no 

57 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

time  in  cleaning  the  fish,  and  getting  them  into 
the  pans. 

Some  of  the  men  had  had  little  or  nothing  to 
eat  for  two  or  three  weeks  and  the  way  they 
helped  themselves  to  those  fried  fish  was  a  sight 
I  shall  never  forget.  We  ate  until  we  could  eat 
no  more,  and  then  we  prepared  to  sleep  in  the 
chapel  as  everyone  dreaded  going  back  to  the 
ill-smelling  hold  of  the  Blakely  where  we  had 
spent  the  most  horrible  three  weeks  of  our  lives. 

It  is  wonderful  how  the  novelty  of  a  new  life 
or  a  new  expectation — that  thin  veneer  of  human 
existence  that  causes  one  to  look  upon  things  he 
does  not  understand — soon  wears  off. 

When  we  first  left  Seattle  we  were  filled  with 
great  expectation  of  the  wealth  that  was  soon 
to  be  ours.  Then  when  the  hardships  of  the  sea 
began  to  make  themselves  felt,  we  virtually 
lived  on  hope. 

When  we  first  started  out  we  always  thought 
that  the  next  day  conditions  would  change  for 
the  better,  and  when  they  grew  worse  instead, 
we  set  up  our  hopes  on  Alaska. 

When  we  got  there,  we  thought  all  our  troubles 
would  end,  and  then — the  great  reward.  We 
would  be  abundantly  repaid  for  all  our  suffering. 

58 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

If  we  had  not  these  thoughts  to  cheer  us,  I 
really  think  that  few  if  any  of  us  would  have 
reached  Alaska  alive. 

During  the  last  few  days  of  our  voyage, 
however,  we  forgot  the  gold  craze;  we  even  lost 
all  thought  of  wealth;  our  single  ambition  then 
was  to  get  to  shore  alive.  In  a  case  of  life  or 
death,  gold  or  great  wealth  is  never  considered. 
This  lesson  was  to  be  taught  us  several  times 
later  by  the  same  hard,  uncompromising  teacher 
— experience;  but  this  first  lesson  has  since 
struck  me  with  greater  force  than  any  of  the 
others. 

This  experience  caused  us  to  be  in  no  great 
hurry  to  start  off  in  the  third  stage  of  our 
journey  across  the  desolate  country.  It  was 
several  days  after  landing  that  thoughts  of  gold- 
mining  began  to  enter  our  minds.  For  the  time 
being  we  were  content  to  save  what  provisions 
we  could  from  the  Blakely,  and  amuse  ourselves 
in  seeing  how  the  natives  lived. 

While  the  majority  of  the  men  slept  after  that 
good  meal  of  fish,  which  to  me  tasted  better  than 
any  meal  I  had  ever  eaten  before  or  since,  some 
of  the  men  and  the  sailors  were  kept  busy  until 
after  midnight,  bringing  all  the  poor  dogs  that 

59 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

were  still  alive  and  a  number  of  other  much 
needed  articles  ashore. 

The  dogs  were  given  all  the  fish  they  could 
eat  and  clean  water  to  drink  and  were  placed  in 
an  empty  shack.  My  fine  big  St.  Bernard  dog 
was  as  thin  as  a  rail,  with  blood-shot  eyes,  and 
seemed  just  alive. 

It  was  the  first  time  since  we  left  Seattle  that 
any  of  us  had  a  real  chance  to  rest,  and  although 
our  improvised  bunks  in  that  old  chapel  were 
very  hard,  the  men  enjoyed  them  as  much  as  if 
they  had  been  spring  mattresses,  and  all  slept 
at  least  sixteen  hours,  getting  up  bright  and 
cheerful. 

Mr.  Johnson  after  we  had  another  good  feed, 
insisted  upon  holding  a  prayer  service,  and 
everyone  of  those  men,  many  of  whom  had  never 
seen  inside  of  a  church,  joined  in  and  offered 
grateful  thanks  to  GOD  that  their  lives  had 
been  spared. 

I  shall  never  forget  that  service  for  I  do  not 
honestly  believe  that  some  of  those  men  had 
ever  prayed  before.  We  sang  "Nearer,  My  God, 
to  Thee,"  and  another  hymn  that  I  have  never 
since  been  able  to  remember.  The  missionary 
was  a  poor  singer  and  but  few  knew  the  words  of 
any  hymn,  but  all  joined  in  the  chorus. 

60 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

The  singing  must  have  been  wretchedly  poor, 
but  I  thought  the  noise  we  produced  was  the 
most  exquisitely  sweet  music  that  I  ever  heard. 
I  have  certainly  never  since  heard  anything 
sung  that  contained  such  genuine  realism  and 
feeling. 

After  the  service  we  came  out  of  the  chapel  by 
the  side  door,  and  there,  standing  over  by  the 
huts  of  the  natives,  were  three  large  and  one 
small  brightly  colored  totem  poles,  representative 
of  the  Eskimo  religion. 

It  was  indeed  a  contrast.  The  poles  were 
about  twenty  feet  high  and  all  kinds  of  horribly 
ugly  features  were  carved  upon  them.  The 
figures,  to  them,  represented  different  spirits. 
Some  of  those  figures — human  or  beast — I  don't 
think  represented  anything  that  ever  existed  on 
land  or  sea.  I  was  interested  to  know  how  the 
natives  managed  to  color  them  so  brightly  and 
was  informed  that  some  of  the  coloring  came 
from  berries,  some  from  sea-grass  and  from  other 
sources,  and  the  methods  employed  by  the 
natives  in  preparing  it  were  most  ingenious. 

Unfortunately  I  did  not  inquire  much  into 
their  religion,  but  I  learned  that  they  still 
worship  these  poles.  They  seemed  to  consider 
everything  that  happened  a  good  or  bad  omen 
and  regulated  their  actions  accordingly. 

63 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Gold  Seekers  Inspect  Living  Conditions  of  Natives 

at   Yakutat.    Fish  so  Plentiful  in  Lagoon 

That  a  Man  Shod  with  Snow-Shoes  Could 

Walk  Across  on  Their  Backs.     Their 

Queer  Fishing  Poles.    How  Ice  Igloos 

Are    Made.      Totem     Poles     and 

Their  Meaning. 

CHAPTER  V. 

HE  morning  after  that  memorable 
night  spent  in  the  chapel,  which 
was  on  March  24th,  the  entire  party- 
set  out  for  a  visit  to  the  homes  of 
the  natives,  led  by  Mr.  Johnson  and 
their  chief,  whom  they  called  Okla. 
As  the  long  night  was  over  and  the 
daylight  was  nearly  continuous  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  the 
absence  of  night  appealed  to  us  as  being  very 
peculiar. 

The  sun  seemed  to  travel  around  us  and  never 
got  very  high  above  the  horizon  or  very  far 
below  it.  The  light  was  mostly  dim,  like  the 
beginning  of  twilight  or  just  before,  and  when 
the  sun  was  not  screened  with  haze,  as  it  usually 
was,  it  looked  like  a  great  red  ball  of  very  hot 
metal. 

65 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

We  found  the  natives  were  house-cleaning  and 
preparing  for  the  hunting  season  when  all  the 
male  members  of  the  tribe  go  out  to  get  food 
for  the  long  winter  months.  They  hunt  in  bands 
and  kill  bear,  reindeer,  beaver,  mink,  otter  and 
caribou.  Others  go  sealing  and  fishing  for  fur 
and  hair  seal  which  are  very  abundant. 

The  women  remain  at  home  making  new 
winter  fur  garments  and  doing  bead  and  basket 
work;  they  also  do  all  the  salting  and  smoking 
of  fish  and  meats  for  winter.  Some  of  the  basket 
and  beadwork  they  do  is  wonderful,  when  the 
conditions  under  which  they  have  to  work  is 
taken  into  consideration.  The  baskets  which 
they  make  from  sea  grass  and  reeds,  interested 
me  especially  and  I  often  wished  I  had  brought 
some  of  them  home.  They  color  the  baskets 
similar  to  the  manner  they  color  the  totem 
poles. 

I  was  not  partial  to  many  of  their  articles  of 
diet,  some  of  which  appeared  to  me  to  be  about 
as  wholesome  as  a  piece  of  old  leather,  but  a 
piece  of  dried  salmon  a  year  old  that  Mr.  Johnson 
gave  me  I  thought  was  the  best  piece  of  fish  I 
had  ever  tasted. 

The  natives  have  two  sets  of  houses;  several 
old  shacks  built  of  wood  in  which  they  live  in 

66 


OKLA,  CHIEF  OF  YAKUTAT  NATIVES 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

the  summer-time  and  their  ice  huts  or  igloos, 
which  they  use  in  the  winter  time  and  which 
melt  away  when  the  summer  returns.  These 
ice  huts  are  built  somewhat  as  a  bricklayer  would 
lay  his  brick,  and  the  cakes  of  ice  incline  toward 
the  center,  making  a  perfect  dome  about  ten 
feet  high. 

It  was  like  solving  a  Chinese  puzzle  to  get  into 
one  of  them  without  a  guide.  The  entrance  is 
about  three  feet  high  and  we  had  to  get  on  our 
hands  and  knees  to  crawl  in,  and  when  I  did  get 
inside,  I  was  not  at  all  charmed  with  the  place. 
There  were  plenty  of  fine  furs  on  the  bunks  they 
used  for  their  sleeping  quarters,  but  the  air  was 
stifling  and  the  fishy  odor  that  permeated  it 
was  repulsive  in  the  extreme.  The  walls  were 
dirty,  evidently  from  the  accumulation  of  smoke 
and  grease,  and  it  was  very  dark. 

The  igloos  are  built  usually  in  three  sections. 
The  first  is  the  smaller  one  used  as  a  storm  break 
and  where  the  dogs  usually  gather  to  keep  away 
from  the  sharp,  biting  wind.  The  Eskimo  dogs, 
however,  will  sleep  right  out  on  the  hard,  frozen 
snow  banks,  if  they  have  plenty  to  eat,  and  never 
seem  to  mind  it. 

The  middle  hut  is  somewhat  larger  and  on 
entering  the  men  leave  their  outer  garments  here 

69 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

before  entering  the  larger  or  sleeping  room.  At 
the  top  of  the  dome  of  the  sleeping  room  is  a 
small  hole  which  is  used  for  ventilation.  The 
cooking  is  done  by  means  of  a  lamp,  and  during 
the  cold  winter  it  is  always  so  cold  that  the  side 
walls  of  the  igloo  do  not  show  any  signs  of  melting 
The  passageways  are  so  arranged  that  the 
draught  keeps  the  fire  burning  and  causes  the 
smoke  to  go  out  of  the  hole  in  the  roof  or  ceiling. 

The  sleeping  room  is  lighted  by  peculiar  lamps 
that  burn  oil  taken  from  the  seals.  They  are 
simply  iron  or  copper  receptacles  or  even  tin 
cans  which  are  secured  from  the  traders,  in  which 
is  a  float  containing  a  wick  made  of  seal  gut  that 
has  been  chewed  until  it  resembles  a  common 
cotton  rope.  This  receptacle  is  kept  filled  with 
oil  and  the  lamp  burns  continuously  for  months. 

In  these  igloos  are  always  large  piles  of  dried 
skins  that  the  natives  have  ready  for  the  traders 
when  they  come  along.  They  also  have  dried 
red  berries  hanging  up  about  the  rooms  which 
are  used  when  mixed  with  tallow  for  food  and 
other  purposes. 

When  we  arrived  at  Yakutat  the  natives  were 
just  moving  out  of  their  igloos  which  were 
beginning  to  melt,  and  taking  up  their  residence 
in  the  log  huts.     These  were  built  much  the 

70 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

same  as  the  middle  compartment  of  the  igloos 
and  had  a  hole  in  the  center  of  the  roof  at  the 
top  so  that  a  fire  of  pine  logs  could  be  built  in 
the  center  of  the  hut. 

The  space  between  the  logs  was  filled  in  with 
some  moss  which  grows  very  abundantly  all 
over  Alaska  and  is  much  used  for  food  by  all 
kinds  of  animal  life  living  in  that  climate.  It 
also  produces  a  red  berry  which  is  used  for  food 
by  the  natives  and  with  which  they  make  a 
coloring  matter  for  the  purpose  of  coloring 
baskets.  The  huts  which  are  located  along  the 
beach,  present  a  very  dreary  and  desolate 
appearance. 

Another  thing  that  interested  me  greatly  was 
their  canoes,  which  they  also  call  kyacks  or  dug- 
outs, and  which  were  very  crudely  constructed. 
In  building  one,  they  first  felled  a  large  tree 
with  their  axes  and  then  they  decided  what 
portion  of  the  trunk  was  to  be  used  for  the  boat. 
Then  they  would  set  to  work  and  carve  out  the 
inside  of  the  boat  first.  When  this  was  finished, 
they  would  begin  cutting  the  boat  out  of  the 
trunk.  With  their  crude  instruments  they  would 
often  knock  several  holes  in  its  side  before  it 
was  finished,  but  they  would  cover  these  holes 
with  pieces  of  skin  and  when  a  new  boat  was 
completed,  it  was  a  very  crude  affair. 

71 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

In  front  of  the  chief's  hut,  near  the  totem  poles 
was  a  large  war  canoe,  which  had  not  been  in 
service  for  a  long  time.  It  was  large  enough  to 
carry  about  three  tons  burden  and  was  handled 
by  from  ten  to  twenty  oarsmen. 

After  our  tour  of  inspection  of  the  native 
village,  some  of  the  men  were  again  going  for 
fish  and  I  asked  to  go  along  in  one  of  the  canoes. 
I  was  given  a  "ramagua,"  a  sort  of  water-proof 
coat,  made  of  seal,  and  then  I  climbed  into  a 
canoe  with  a  native,  who  took  one  of  the  long 
poles  with  spikes  through  one  end,  which  I  had 
seen  when  I  first  landed  the  day  before. 

After  paddling  for  about  fifteen  minutes,  we 
came  to  the  opening  of  a  large  lagoon  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  directly  back  of  Yakutat. 
When  we  had  gone  into  the  lagoon  about  two 
hundred  feet,  the  native  motioned  to  me  to  stop 
paddling,  and  picking  up  the  pole,  he  made  a 
quick  sweeping  movement  through  the  water 
with  it.  When  he  brought  the  pole  to  the  sur- 
face, to  my  utter  amazement  there  was  at  least 
twenty  fat  herring  and  smelts  on  the  spikes 
which  he  threw  into  the  canoe  with  a  quick 
twist  of  the  wrist  so  that  a  number  struck  me  as 
they  wriggled  about. 

I  watched  him  repeat  this  performance  several 
times,  hardly  believing  my  own  eyes,  and  then  I 

72 


CHIEF'S  SHACK  AND  TOTEM  POLE 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

motioned  to  him  to  give  me  a  trial.  I  cannot 
describe  my  feelings  when  I  attempted  to  put 
that  pole  down  into  the  water  and  found  that 
the  fish  were  actually  so  thick  that  it  would  not 
go  down  easily.  The  natives  motioned  to  me 
to  push  it  into  the  water  sideways  and  when  I 
did  so,  that  moving,  squirming  mass,  startled 
me.  It  was  like  pushing  the  pole  through  soft 
mud.  When  I  brought  it  up  I  had  wounded 
scores  of  fish,  but  I  had  a  number  of  them  on  the 
spikes,  too. 

This  fish  story  may  seem  unbelievable,  but  it 
is  nevertheless  true.  I  have  often  heard  the 
story  of  a  man  walking  across  a  stream  on  the 
backs  of  the  fish  and  thought  it  was  a  joke,  but 
I  honestly  believe  that  if  a  man  wore  snow-shoes 
he  could  have  walked  about  the  lagoon  on  the 
backs  of  those  fish. 

After  our  meal  of  fish  that  night,  that  wrig- 
gling, squirming,  mass  of  living  things  got  into  my 
dreams  and  I  could  not  get  them  out.  I  rolled 
about  in  a  delirium  of  fish  all  night. 

Up  until  this  time  we  had  been  so  much 
interested  in  our  expedition  that  we  had  taken 
little  notice  of  our  own  condition  ;but  after  being  on 
land  about  two  or  three  days  we  began  to  realize 
what  a  rough,  uncouth  party  we  were. 

75 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

The  day  I  decided  to  go  on  the  gold-mining 
expedition  I  began  to  allow  my  hair  and  beard 
to  grow,  being  informed  that  it  would  be  a  great 
protection  from  the  arctic  cold.  Others  did  the 
same  and  by  the  time  we  left  New  York  we  were 
already  a  grizzled  bunch.  Some  of  the  men  still 
tried  to  shave  after  we  had  gone  aboard  the 
Blakely,  but  they  soon  abandoned  it,  and  by  the 
time  we  reached  Yakutat  we  looked  like  a  tribe 
of  wild  men  and  if  our  friends  could  have  seen 
us  they  never  would  have  recognized  us.  Our 
clothing  was  already  beginning  to  wear  out,  and 
we  were  all  pretty  dirty. 

Then,  too,  it  was  not  until  two  or  three  days 
after  we  landed  that  we  began  to  comprehend 
some  of  the  things  we  saw.  While  the  immediate 
scenery  around  Yakutat  is  very  commonplace 
and  dreary  the  views  in  the  distance  are  most 
magnificent.  Far  to  the  north  of  us  the  great 
white  peak  of  Mt.  St.  Elias  loomed  up  and  its 
top  was  lost  in  the  clouds. 

To  the  northwest,  Mount  Logan  reared  its 
white  form  far  into  the  skies  and  all  around  that 
bay  was  a  high  range  of  snow-covered  mountains, 
which  protected  the  little  harbor  from  the 
severe  winds  that  sweep  down  from  the  north. 

At  the  base  of  Mt.  St.  Elias,  lies  the  great 
Malaspina  Glacier,   which  seemed  to  smother 

76 


WS-** 


ij5 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

everything  out  of  existence  except  the  mountain 
itself.  The  foot  of  the  glacier  reached  right 
down  into  the  sea,  and  occasionally  a  great 
iceberg  would  break  off  with  a  thunderous  roar 
as  of  contending  armies  and  float  away  to 
become  a  menace  to  navigation. 

By  walking  some  distance  down  the  beach  we 
got  a  good  view  of  the  foot  of  this  immense 
glacier.  The  sight,  as  one  looked  up  at  that 
great  mass  of  ice,  was  overwhelming.  On 
account  of  the  ice  breaking  off  the  end  of  the 
glacier,  the  edge  or  "break-off "  was  very  abrupt. 
Approaching  it  from  the  ocean  it  looked  like  a 
great  flat  wall  of  marble  of  various  colors  rising 
perpendicularly  up  out  of  the  water  to  a  height 
of  five  hundred  feet  or  more.  This  end  was  in 
reality  a  cross-section  of  the  glacier  and  it  looked 
as  if  the  ice  had  been  laid  down  into  strata. 

Each  layer  was  clearly  defined,  and  the  top 
layers  were  white  tinted  with  shades  of  blue- 
green.  Down  near  the  water  line,  however,  the 
wall  of  ice  was  of  a  bright  purple  color.  All 
around,  the  sea  was  a  dead  green,  and  when  the 
sun  shone  on  the  end  of  that  wall  of  ice,  it 
produced  a  dazzling  effect  that  almost  caused 
one  to  feel  that  the  thing  was  not  real. 

It  was  also  at  Yakutat  that  we  got  our  first 
glimpse  of  the  Aurora  Borealis,  or  Northern 

79 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Lights,  but  it  was  not  until  we  had  started  for 
the  interior  that  we  saw  anything  of  its  real 
brilliance.  About  9  or  10  o'clock  at  night  the 
northern  heavens  seemed  to  light  up  with  a  dim 
illumination  as  if  the  real  light  was  hidden 
behind  a  cloud  and  we  saw  only  the  reflection. 

This  light  would  come  and  go  each  night,  but 
it  did  not  grow  bright  enough  to  dispel  the 
darkness  to  any  extent.  It  is  hardly  likely  that 
we  would  have  noticed  it  had  we  not  read  so 
much  about  the  brilliance  of  the  northern 
heavens. 

On  account  of  the  fact  that  the  tide  rises  and 
falls  from  twenty-five  to  forty  feet  at  Yakutat, 
the  beach  is  very  extensive,  except  where  the 
mountains  drop  down  abruptly  into  the  sea. 
The  beach  is  composed  of  a  fine  gray  sand,  and 
during  the  spring  season,  is  covered  with  hun- 
dreds of  cakes  of  ice  of  all  sizes  and  shapes, 
some  as  large  as  ten  feet  square,  which  have 
been  brought  up  and  left  there  by  the  tides. 
Hundreds  of  spotted  hair  seals,  or  dog  seals,  as 
they  are  also  known,  could  be  seen  bobbing  up 
and  down  among  these  cakes  of  ice  and  barking 
like  a  pack  of  wild  dogs. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  peculiar  sights  that 
could  be  seen  about  Yakutat,  and  I  remember 

80 


MAT)  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

how  we  all  experienced  an  uncertain  fear  when 
we  first  came  ashore  and  heard  the  barking  of 
those  seals  a  short  distance  from  our  boat. 

While  most  of  the  men  were  busily  engaged  in 
sight-seeing,  the  captain  came  ashore  and  made 
arrangements  to  unload  our  cargo.  On  March 
23rd,  the  work  began  and  continued  for  three 
days.  The  sailors  came  ashore  with  a  hawser 
which  was  tied  to  a  tree  some  distance  inland, 
and  when  the  tide  had  reached  its  greatest 
height,  a  number  of  men  caught  hold  of  the  rope 
to  pull  the  vessel  ashore. 

I  well  remember  how  we  pulled  and  tugged  at 
that  rope  for  several  minutes  before  that  old 
ship  gave  any  intimation  that  it  was  going  to 
move.  It  began  very  gradually  to  move  and 
then  as  our  steady  tugging  overcame  its  momen- 
tum it  could  be  seen  coming  in  shore.  I  think 
now  that  one  man  could  have  moved  that  boat 
if  he  would  only  pull  long  enough. 

We  pulled  the  Blakely  in  shore  until  she 
struck  the  beach  and  anchored  her  to  a  tree  with 
a  hawser.  When  the  tide  flowed  out  a  peculiar 
sight  greeted  us.  There,  high  and  dry  on  the 
gray  beach,  lay  our  boat,  listing  to  one  side  at  an 
angle  of  about  forty-five  degrees.  From  the 
shore  we  could  see  the  water  running  out  of  the 

81 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

seams  in  her  sides  and  forming  a  small  creek  as 
it  coursed  its  way  down  to  the  water's  edge. 

The  ice  that  had  covered  the  rigging  and  deck 
began  to  melt  and  fall  away,  but  the  hull  of  the 
vessel,  covered  to  a  depth  of  three  inches  or  more 
with  barnacles,  presented  a  deplorable  sight. 
The  crusted  ship,  with  its  sickly  steel  gray  color 
as  it  rested  there  in  the  sand,  reminded  us  so 
forcibly  of  our  terrible  experience  that  we  did 
not  care  to  go  near  it  to  get  our  supplies  which 
were  still  packed  in  her  hold.  When  the  wind 
blew  in  from  the  vessel  it  brought  with  it  a 
revolting  odor,  still  so  strong  and  nauseating 
that  we  were  compelled  to  avoid  it. 


82 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Much  of  Our  Goods  Were  Spoiled  on  the  Blakely. 

Preparations  Are  Made  for  the  Wild  Dash 

into  the    Unknown  Interior.     Men  Take 

Up  Collection  and  Give  It  to  Missionary. 

Men  Erect  Tents,  and  Try  Out  the 

Dogs  In  Harness. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

HE  sailors  set  to  work  immediately 
caulking  up  the  holes  in  the  side  of 
the  hull  from  which  the  water 
gushed,  in  order  to  prevent  water 
from  running  in  these  same  holes 
when  the  Blakely  put  to  sea  again. 
In  order  to  reach  the  seams  the 

sailors  were  compelled  to  chop  the    barnacles 

away  with  an  axe. 

The  caulking  was  done  with  oakum,  a  sort  of 
fibre,  which  was  packed  in  the  seams  with 
instruments  known  as  caulking  irons.  As  soon 
as  this  was  done  the  sailors  made  ready  to 
unload  the  cargo,  and  a  scaffold  was  built  to 
better  facilitate  the  work. 

We  found  much  of  our  goods  spoiled.  All  of 
our  tools  and  machinery  were  rusted  almost 
beyond  recognition,  and  we  were  compelled  to 

85 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

spend  a  considerable  amount  of  time  scraping 
the  rust  off  and  greasing  the  tools  in  order  to 
preserve  them.  We  used  seal  blubber  and  fish 
oil  for  this  purpose,  which  we  bought  from 
the  natives. 

With  the  exception  of  our  flour  and  meats  and 
the  foodstuffs  we  had  in  air-tight  cans,  all  our 
provisions  were  partly  spoiled  by  the  water, 
even  the  tin  cans  were  badly  rusted  so  that  we 
had  to  scrape  the  rust  off  and  grease  them.  The 
flour  preserved  itself  in  a  way  that  surprised  us. 
The  water  only  penetrated  to  a  depth  of  about 
one-half  of  an  inch,  and  caused  a  hard  crust  to  be 
formed  just  inside  the  bag,  which  protected  all 
the  flour  within.  I  have  since  learned  that  a  bag 
of  flour  can  be  thrown  into  the  water  and  left 
there  and  the  dampness  will  not  penetrate  more 
than  a  quarter  of  an  inch. 

For  three  whole  days  we  toiled  away,  unload- 
ing the  ship,  carrying  the  cargo  to  shore  and 
piling  it  up  in  three  big  piles,  each  containing 
the  goods  and  equipment  of  a  separate  party. 
All  this  was  done  in  a  systematic  manner  and 
the  operation  moved  along  like  clockwork.  After 
the  cargo  had  been  unloaded  the  sailors  tore 
away  the  deck-house  and  put  the  lumber  in  the 
hold  of  the  boat,  to  be  used  partly  as  ballast. 

86 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

With  all  our  provisions  and  equipment  on  land 
and  everyone  beginning  to  feel  fine,  we  began  to 
consider  the  next  stage  of  our  journey.  Within 
two  days  after  we  landed,  all  our  dogs,  which  had 
survived  the  voyage,  but  which  looked  as  if  they 
had  but  a  faint  spark  of  life  left,  had  completely 
recovered  and  were  ready  for  work.  They  were 
getting  fat  and  sleek  on  plenty  of  fish,  which 
were  left  over  from  our  meals. 

Fish  were  so  plentiful  that  no  one  stopped  to 
pick  bones,  but  just  took  one  bite  and  threw  the 
rest  to  the  dogs.  After  our  dogs  got  acquainted 
with  the  place  they  were  continually  fighting 
with  the  Yakutat  "huskies/'  which  did  not  seem 
to  have  any  sense  of  "dog  honor"  whatever  and 
were  always  sneaking  about  attempting  to  steal 
something. 

The  Alaskan  dogs  look  just  like  wolves  except 
that  they  are  not  so  large  and  have  bushy  tails 
that  curl  up  over  their  backs.  They  were  always 
snarling  and  fighting  among  themselves  and  laid 
about  everywhere  in  the  huts  or  outside,  as  they 
pleased.  Each  family  had  from  twenty  to 
thirty  of  these  dogs. 

Our  first  concern  was  to  try  out  our  equipment 
that  we  had  purchased  in  Seattle,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  we  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that 

87 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

while  the  sleds,  snow-shoes  and  other  imple- 
ments used  by  the  natives  were  all  very  crude, 
they  were  far  superior  in  point  of  service  to  any 
of  the  implements  we  had  brought  with  us. 
While  the  Seattle  equipment  did  the  work 
required  of  it  and  was  a  wonderful  help  to  us, 
we  found  that  the  equipment  made  by  the 
natives  was  much  better  adapted  to  arctic 
conditions. 

Their  sleds  were  all  built  entirely  of  wood, 
bound  tightly  together  with  straps  of  sinews. 
When  they  were  about  to  be  used  the  sleds  were 
stood  on  end  and  water  which  had  been  melted 
from  ice,  poured  down  the  runners.  The 
weather  was  usually  so  cold  that  it  froze  instantly 
and  made  a  sliding  surface  that  was  much  more 
serviceable  than  steel.  Not  being  rigid  the  sleds 
were  very  hard  to  upset  and  seemed  to  conform 
their  shape  to  the  surface  of  the  ice  in  such  a  way 
that  their  equilibrium  was  seldom  disturbed. 
They  were  guided  by  uprights  attached  to  the 
rear  of  the  sleds. 

The  sleds  we  bought  in  Seattle  were  made  of 
steel  and  wood  and  their  rigidity  made  them 
very  easily  upset,  and  they  were  intended  to  be 
guided  by  a  stick  run  through  two  rings  on  the 
side  and  protruding  out  in  front,  which  we  found 

88 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

to  be  impractical.  There  was  also  something 
about  the  native-made  snow-shoes  that  made 
them  superior  to  the  snow-shoes  we  had  brought 
along,  which  cannot  well  be  described.  They 
seemed  to  conform  to  the  feet  better,  and  were 
more  elastic  and  were  not  so  tiresome. 

We  made  arrangements  with  the  natives 
to  purchase  a  large  amount  of  additional  equip- 
ment, and  the  native  women  immediately  set 
to  work  making  "mucklocks,"  fur  coats  and  dog 
harness  for  us.  The  "mucklocks"  are  a  sort  of 
a  moccasin  made  of  skins  which  cover  the  feet 
and  legs  up  to  nearly  the  knee  and  they  are  a 
necessity  for  traveling  in  the  arctic  regions. 

We  had  figured  when  purchasing  our  equip- 
ment in  Seattle  that  one  sled  would  do  for  two 
men,  but  we  soon  found  that  we  would  have  to 
have  a  sled  for  each  man,  and  before  we  left 
Yakutat  we  bought  almost  everything  in  the 
place  that  could  be  used  in  the  journey,  including 
some  forty  dogs,  which  we  started  to  run  in 
harness  along  the  shore  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
them  broken  into  their  work,  and  running  the 
rust  off  the  sled  runners. 

We  also  erected  our  heavy  army  tents  and  our 
Yukon  wood  stoves  so  that  we  could  do  our  own 
cooking  and  get  an  idea  of  camp  life  before 

89 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

starting  out  for  the  interior.  The  stoves  were 
fitted  with  collapsible  pipe  which  would  telescope 
together  and  could  be  placed  in  the  oven  of  the 
stove  when  it  was  being  moved. 

The  tents  also  soon  proved  their  usefulness. 
They  were  equipped  with  what  is  known  as  mud- 
flaps,  which  are  nothing  more  than  a  double 
wall  which  reaches  down  to  the  ground  so  that 
mud  can  be  banked  against  them  on  all  sides  of 
the  tent.  This  prevents  the  wind  from  getting 
in,  and  when  a  man  pulled  his  sled  into  his  tent, 
fastened  the  flaps  down,  curled  up  in  his  sleeping 
bag  and  used  his  sled  for  a  bed,  he  could  rest 
comfortably  in  the  coldest  weather.  I  never 
knew  until  then,  how  warm  a  tent  could  be 
made. 

The  men  spent  their  spare  time  learning  to 
walk  on  snow-shoes.  Some  of  the  men  were  so 
awkward  that  they  fell  down  completely,  but 
after  several  days  of  trying  managed  to  learn 
how  to  use  them. 

The  trouble  experienced  by  the  men  was 
because  they  thought  a  certain  style  of  walking 
was  to  be  learned  in  order  to  use  the  snow-shoes, 
when  in  reality  the  shoes  compel  a  person  to 
walk  naturally,  and  as  soon  as  they  learned  to 
walk  with  a  natural  stride,  the  snow-shoes  gave 
them  no  trouble. 

90 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Just  before  making  our  final  arrangements  to 
start  into  the  interior,  we  took  up  a  collection 
among  the  men,  which  amounted  to  $300, 
which  we  had  planned  to  give  to  the  missionary, 
Mr.  Johnson,  for  his  good  advice  and  kind  ser- 
vices. We  were  astounded  when  he  at  first 
refused  to  accept  the  money,  and  it  was  only 
after  much  pleading  on  our  part  that  he  could  be 
induced  to  take  it. 

I  have  often  thought  that  even  if  the  amount 
was  double  what  it  was  it  would  not  have  repaid 
him  for  his  service  in  our  behalf.  He  had 
endeared  himself  to  us  as  no  other  man  could, 
for  he  made  every  single  one  of  us  feel  that  he 
had  a  personal  interest  in  us,  and  it  was  indeed 
a  joy  to  him  to  be  able  to  render  us  any  service 
that  lay  in  his  power. 

Saturated  as  we  were  with  a  desire  to  find  gold 
and  assured  in  some  inconceivable  manner  that 
we  were  soon  to  have  our  ambitions  realized,  it 
was  hard  for  us  to  see  how  a  man  of  such  attain- 
ments could  be  content  to  throw  his  life  away 
among  the  half -civilized  natives  of  the  far  north. 

But  both  he  and  his  wife  labored  for  their 
welfare  as  if  they  were  their  own  children,  and 
although  the  Esquimo  is  always  skeptical  and 
hard  to  convince,  he  had  accomplished  wonders, 

91 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

not  only  in  instructing  them  in  the  true  religion, 
but  also  in  bettering  their  material  welfare. 

Before  he  made  his  home  with  this  tribe, 
traders  had  been  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  Yaku- 
tat  occasionally  and  purchasing  almost  priceless 
furs  for  a  few  gaudy  articles  which  were  usually 
of  little  or  no  value.  He  taught  the  natives  the 
value  of  their  product  and  compelled  the  trader 
to  give,  in  compensation,  something  that  approx- 
imated the  furs  and  skins  in  value. 

Aside  from  this,  he  instructed  them  in  the  use 
of  machinery  and  in  practical  carpentering  in  an 
effort  to  show  the  people  how  to  build  better 
homes.  He  had  a  small  saw  mill  shipped  to  him 
by  the  church  in  Chicago  which  was  supporting 
him,  and  by  damming  a  stream,  managed  to 
construct  a  crude  water-wheel  with  which  to 
run  it. 

In  the  short  summer  months  the  natives  were 
taught  to  cut  down  trees,  saw  them  into  boards 
and  build  homes.  Yet  the  natives  were  such  a 
shiftless  people  that  I  often  wondered  that  the 
missionary  did  not  lose  patience  and  give  up 
in  despair. 

In  addition  to  this,  Mrs.  Johnson  conducted  a 
sewing  class  where  she  taught  the  Indian  girls 
how  to  sew  with  a  steel  needle  and  cotton  thread 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

and  with  a  sewing  machine  which  she  had.  The 
girls  persisted  in  sewing  the  way  their  ancestors 
had  sewed  for  generations  before  them,  however, 
and  I  could  not  see  that  she  was  making  much 
progress. 

The  missionaries  were  also  attempting  to 
teach  the  natives  English,  but  were  not  succeed- 
ing very  well,  because  both  Mr.  Johnson  and  his 
wife  spoke  with  a  decided  Swedish  accent  and 
the  natives,  of  course,  talked  in  much  the 
same  way. 


95 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Party  Starts  on  Toilsome  Journey  Packing  Goods 
to   Glacier.      Men    Work   Eighteen    Hours 
Each  Day.     Heavy  Motor  a  Great  Draw- 
back.   Life  on  a  Glacier  of  Moving  Ice. 
Hard  Time  Getting  Up  On  the  Glacier 
Proper. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

EFORE  making  the  start  of  what 
proved  to  be  a  very  toilsome  journey 
into  the  interior,  we  took  account  of 
stock  and  found  that  every  man 
had  between  900  to  1000  pounds  of 
goods,  provisions  and  tools  to  be 
taken  with  him. 

In  an  effort  to  show  what  a  stu- 
pendous task  we  were  undertaking,  I  have  com- 
piled a  list  of  everything  we  purchased  in 
Seattle.  Some  of  this  stuff  was  spoiled  on  the 
Blakely,  but  what  was  later  bought  from  the 
natives  about  made  up  for  this  loss  in  weight. 
The  list  was  as  follows: 

Thirty-six  hundred  pounds  of  flour,  1800 
pounds  beans,  1000  pounds  salt,  300  pounds 
dried  beef,  50  pounds  spices,  50  pounds  black 
powder,  100  pounds  candles,  400  pounds  sugar, 

97 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

600  pounds  dried  fruit,  1500  pounds  evaporated 
vegetables,  beef  tea,  matches  soap,  tea  and  coffee, 
10  pounds  citric  acid,  100  pounds  pilot  bread, 
50  pounds  split  peas,  90  pounds  condensed  milk, 
15  pounds  magic  yeast,  100  pounds  rolled  oats, 
110  pounds  of  other  articles,  including  malted 
milk  and  medicines. 

Other  equipment — motor  800  pounds,  two 
stoves  50  pounds,  quick  silver  or  mercury  100 
pounds;  eighteen  shovels  and  twenty  picks, 
250  pounds;  six  axes  and  six  hatchets,  50 
pounds;  whip  saw,  brace  and  bits,  25  pounds; 
rope  and  wire,  1000  pounds;  gold  pans  and 
steel  bar,  65  pounds;  tarpaulins,  tents,  sleds  and 
harness,  600  pounds;  sleeping  bags,  utensils, 
blocks  and  pulleys  with  our  rifles  and  the 
ammunition,  2000  pounds.  This  made  an 
average  of  835  pounds  per  man.  This  did  not 
include  the  men's  clothing  or  shoes  and  boots, 
however. 

We  consulted  the  natives  as  to  the  best  route 
to  take  and  were  directed  over  a  range  of 
mountains  that  would  bring  us  to  Disenchant- 
ment Bay,  where  we  could  take  any  of  four 
glaciers,  which  were  arms  of  the  Malaspina 
Glacier.  We  decided  on  a  northerly  course 
between  Mount  Logan  and  Mount  Hubbard 

98 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

north  of  Mount  St.  Elias.  This  led  over  vast 
glaciers,  which  had  never  been  crossed  by  any- 
human  being  before.  The  natives  were  fearful 
of  crossing  moving  ice,  but  we  paid  no  attention 
to  their  warning,  feeling  that  we  could  easily 
cross  the  glacier. 

Our  plan  was  to  proceed  north  to  the  Yukon 
River  and  then  up  the  river  to  our  goal  a  distance 
of  about  eight  hundred  miles.  The  Manchester 
party  decided  to  go  with  us  across  the  glacier 
at  least,  but  the  St.  Paul  and  Texas  parties, 
desiring  to  reach  the  Mackenzie  River,  started 
out  in  a  northwesterly  direction. 

After  arranging  with  a  couple  of  natives  who 
could  speak  a  little  English  to  go  with  us  as 
guides,  our  preparations  for  the  trip  were 
complete. 

At  this  point  it  may  be  said  that  the  territory 
of  Alaska  was  ceded  by  Russia  to  the  United 
States  in  1867  for  a  consideration  of  $7,000,000, 
and  according  to  the  government  report,  has 
an  area  of  577,390  square  miles.  Texas  is  said 
to  be  twice  as  large  as  any  other  state  in  the 
Union,  and  Alaska  is  twice  as  large  as  Texas. 

When  it  is  taken  into  consideration  that  but 
one-tenth   of  this  territory  was  inhabited   in 

99 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

1896,  an  idea  of  how  vast  the  wild  unexplored 
territory  that  was  left  can  be  gained. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  railroads, 
telegraph  and  telephone  lines  in  many  parts  of 
the  territory,  and  the  mode  of  living  there  has 
been  vastly  changed  since  the  days  of  the 
gold  rush. 

On  April  12th  we  carried  our  first  load  of 
seventy-five  pounds  each  with  pack-straps  five 
miles  and  it  was  a  long  toilsome  journey.  We 
were  unable  to  use  the  sleds,  as  the  trail  was  very 
rough  and  steep  leading  through  forest  and 
ravines,  although  we  had  sent  scouts  ahead  to 
lay  out  the  best  route  and  blaze  a  trail  through 
the  woods. 

We  established  a  camp  five  miles  from  Yakutat 
where  some  of  the  men  remained  all  the  time 
and  guarded  the  supplies.  Each  man  made  two 
trips  a  day  and  it  was  several  days  before  we 
brought  the  last  load  and  bid  farewell  to 
Yakutat. 

Before  leaving,  however,  we  wrote  about  100 
letters  to  our  relatives  and  friends;  these  were 
left  with  the  missionary  with  orders  not  to  put 
them  aboard  the  Blakely,  which  we  feared  would 
never  reach  port,  but  rather  to  put  them  on  a 
trading  vessel  or  home-bound  whaler. 

100 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Although  our  journey  had  not  yet  begun,  we 
got  a  taste  of  the  ceaseless  toil  and  bitter  hard- 
ships that  were  to  be  ours  later  in  moving  our 
goods  and  equipment  those  first  Jive  miles.  The 
pack-straps,  although  unusually:  v/'de,  chafed 
and  cut  our  shoulders  until  they  had  imbedded 
themselves  in  our  flesh. 

My  own  shoulders  still  bear  the  pack-strap 
marks.  .  Finally  we  were  forced  to  abandon  the 
straps  altogether  and  carry  the  goods  on  our 
heads  and  shoulders.    But  not  a  man  flinched. 

We  worked  for  eighteen  or  twenty  hours  at  a 
stretch  and  then  completely  exhausted,  crawled 
into  our  sleeping  bags  and  rested  for  twelve 
hours  more.  These  sleeping  bags  were  about 
seven  feet  long  and  three  feet  wide,  were  covered 
on  the  outside  with  heavy  water-proof  canvas, 
with  a  heavy  wool  blanket  and  a  bear  or  goat 
skin  bag  inside.  The  bag  was  so  arranged  that 
you  could  get  in  and  fasten  the  outer  flap  from 
the  inside  and  always  feel  warm  and  cozy,  even 
in  the  coldest  of  weather. 

The  hardest  part  of  our  work  was  moving  our 
motor,  which  was  in  reality  a  dynamo  weighing 
about  800  pounds  and  which  we  attempted  to 
move  intact.  The  engineer  in  our  party  had 
planned  to  dam  up  a  stream,  construct  a  water 

101 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

wheel  and  manufacture  power  for  mining  pur- 
poses. We  had  all  the  tools  and  equipment 
with  us  to  do  this  and  we  were  assured  such  a 
plan  was  practical. 

It  was  not  so  much  the  weight  of  the  machine 
which  bothered  us,  but  its  awkward  bulk.  We 
lashed  it  with  ropes  to  two  poles  and  attempted 
to  carry  it  on  the  plan  of  a  Soudan  chair.  After 
a  great  amount  of  toil  we  managed  to  get  it 
moved  the  first  stage  of  our  journey,  but  this 
one  piece  of  equipment  seemed  to  be  our  greatest 
drawback  toward  making  rapid  progress. 

It  required  more  than  a  week  for  us  to  get  all 
our  goods  and  equipment  up  near  the  glacier 
proper,  where  our  real  journey  started.  The 
journey  up  over  the  edge  of  that  great  field  of 
ice  was  much  more  toilsome  than  the  journey  up 
to  it.  Finally,  however,  on  April  20th,  we  carried 
our  last  load  and  made  arrangements  to  start  on 
our  journey  northward  over  the  ice. 

The  days  continued  to  grow  much  longer  and 
warmer  and  everyone  was  in  good  health  and 
spirits.  Each  man  put  about  five  hundred 
pounds  on  his  sled,  which  included  his  equipment 
of  a  tarpaulin,  a  sleeping-bag  and  a  small  army 
tent.  Each  sled  was  drawn  by  four  dogs.  They 
seemed  to  understand  what  was  expected  of 

102 


TRAVELING  OVER  MUMMOCK  ICE 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

them  although  at  times  they  would  start  to  fight, 
and  we  would  have  a  Chinese  puzzle  to  solve  in 
getting  the  tangle  out  of  the  harness. 

With  everything  in  readiness  we  started 
forward.  The  ice  at  that  point  was  covered  with 
soft  snow  and  four  of  our  party  were  required 
to  go  ahead  and  break  a  trail  with  snow-shoes 
so  that  the  remaining  party  might  follow  and 
keep  in.  a  straight  line. 

The  sleds  followed  at  a  distance  of  fifty  to  one 
hundred  feet  apart,  so  that  our  entire  party 
covered  a  trail  of  nearly  a  half  a  mile  and  it 
looked  like  a  broken  black  streak  in  a  vast  sea 
of  whiteness  that  was  almost  blinding.  The 
sled  train  could  move  no  faster  than  the  men 
ahead  who  broke  the  trail,  who  used  a  pole  to 
test  the  places  in  the  ice  that  looked  weak. 

By  traveling  a  whole  day  we  were  able  to 
cover  no  more  than  ten  to  fifteen  miles,  and  when 
we  finally  stopped  to  rest  we  were  so  completely 
exhausted  that  we  could  have  gone  no  further 
if  we  had  tried. 

Life  on  a  great  glacier  of  moving  ice  is  so 
different  from  life  under  any  other  conditions 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  convey  an  ade- 
quate idea  of  this  portion  of  our  journey. 

105 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Imagine,  if  you  can,  a  rolling  sea  of  ice  which 
stretches  away  to  meet  the  horizon  on  all  sides. 
There  is  nothing  above  but  the  light  blue  sky, 
nothing  below  but  the  snow-covered  ice,  modeled 
into  hills  and  hollows,  much  the  same  as  a 
treeless  stretch  of  rolling  landscape.  The  sur- 
face of  the  glacier  is  always  windswept,  so  that 
here  and  there  where  the  ice  is  bare,  the  dazzling 
whiteness  of  the  snow  is  augmented  by  the 
blinding  brilliancy  of  the  reflected  light  from 
these  ice  mirrors. 

At  first  this  brilliant  scene  seemed  to  fascinate 
us,  but  as  we  toiled  heroically  on,  the  glinting 
flashes  of  reflected  light  gradually  revealed  to  us 
the  desolation  that  surrounded  us  and  threatened 
to  devour  us. 

Although  we  all  wore  blue  or  smoked  glasses 
made  like  automobile  goggles,  some  of  the  men 
began  to  feel  the  effects  of  snow-blindness 
within  a  short  time  after  we  reached  the  glacier. 

At  first  we  began  to  lose  control  of  our  feet. 
Unable  to  see  ahead  on  account  of  the  piercing 
glare  of  reflected  light,  we  tried  to  walk  on 
blindly  and  found  it  impossible.  Whenever  we 
managed  to  open  our  eyes  the  surface  of  the  ice 
seemed  only  to  be  a  few  inches  away  and  we 
were  completely  bewildered. 

106 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

We  tried  to  reinforce  the  glasses  by  covering 
our  faces  with  red  handkerchiefs  in  which  two 
small  holes  were  cut  for  eyes.  This  plan  gave 
little  relief  and  we  were  unable  to  refrain  from 
rubbing  our  eye-lids,  which  caused  them  to 
become  very  much  inflamed  and  sore.  At  times 
the  pain  became  almost  unbearable.  My  eyes 
felt  just  as  if  someone  was  rubbing  sand  into 
them,  and  my  head  became  giddy. 

I  have  been  told  that  men  often  go  insane  with 
the  pain,  and  had  our  party  not  come  prepared 
with  a  large  assortment  of  glasses  of  different 
colors,  I  am  sure  some  of  us  would  have  met 
this  fate. 

Even  the  natives  who  live  in  the  arctic  regions 
are  not  immune  from  the  attacks  of  snow  blind- 
ness, and  not  being  able  to  secure  smoked  glasses 
often  suffer  more  than  white  men. 

The  only  life  that  is  seen  anywhere  on  the 
glacier  is  the  ptarmigan  or  fool-hen  as  they  are 
known,  a  sort  of  morbid  species  of  chicken.  Its 
eyes  are  protected  by  being  surrounded  by  a 
black  disk  fringed  with  red. 

In  attempting  to  prevent  snow  blindness,  the 
natives  use  nature's  plan  and  paint  a  portion  of 
their  faces  around  their  eyes  with  black  soot  and 

107 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

stain  the  edge  red  with  the  juice  of  berries.  Some 
of  the  men  of  our  party  tried  this  plan,  but  did 
not  find  it  as  good  as  the  smoked  glasses.  When 
the  natives  painted  their  faces  in  this  way  they 
presented  an  extremely  horrid  appearance  and 
looked  like  demons  as  they  trudged  along. 

In  the  middle  of  the  day  when  the  sun  was 
highest,  the  air  became  comparatively  warm,  but 
the  temperature  near  the  ground  was  very  cold. 
At  times  we  tugged  at  the  sleds  with  the  dogs 
and  perspired  freely  with  no  clothing  except  a 
thin  shirt  about  the  upper  portion  of  our  bodies, 
but  our  legs  would  always  have  to  be  covered 
with  heavy  "mucklocks"  or  moccasions. 

During  the  first  two  or  three  days  we  were  on 
the  glacier,  we  could  hear  the  water  gurgling 
under  the  surface,  but  not  a  drop  could  be  seen 
anywhere.  In  places  these  subterranean  streams 
would  cut  deep  crevasses  in  the  ice  under  the 
surface  and  we  had  to  be  very  careful  to  test  the 
ice  with  sticks  before  venturing  ahead  in  order 
to  prevent  breaking  through.  From  the  very 
first  we  had  many  narrow  escapes,  because  we 
did  not  take  the  necessary  precautions. 


108 


"Ac 


ONE  OF  THE  NUMEROUS  CREVASSES  OF  THE  MALASPINA  GLACIER 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Great  Crevasses  Make  Journey  Dangerous.    Native 
Guides   Never  Give  Any  Advice.    Sick  and 
Weary  Party  Toils  on    Hopelessly  Over 
Desert  of  Ice.     Terrible  Blizzard  Over- 
takes Them.    Fuel  Nearly  Exhausted 
and  the  Middle  of  Glacier  Not  Yet 
Reached. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 


]  FTER  we  had  traveled  over  the  very- 
rough  and  hummocky  ice  for  at  least 
fifteen  miles,  we  left  these  gurgling 
streams  behind,  but  the  crevasses  in 
the  ice  were  ever  present.  Some  of 
them  were  no  more  than  a  few 
inches  or  a  foot  wide  and  we  could 
step  across  them  with  ease. 

In  other  places  the  crevasses  and  cracks  were 
much  wider  and  were  packed  full  of  snow,  form- 
ing a  bridge  and  we  were  able  to  cross  them 
in  safety.  The  snow  never  completely  filled  the 
crevasses,  but  was  plugged  tight  in  the  mouth 
for  several  feet.  Sometimes  we  could  push  a 
stick  down  through  the  snow,  but  it  was  packed 
together  tightly  enough  that  we  could  walk  over 
it  safely  with  snow-shoes. 

111 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Of  course  this  was  a  very  dangerous  piece  of 
business,  but  we  were  both  ignorant  and  fearless 
and  up  until  that  time  did  not  take  risks  into 
consideration.  Whenever  we  saw  a  streak  of 
snow  across  the  ice  we  knew  it  filled  the  mouth 
of  a  crevasse. 

At  times  when  our  entire  party  would  cross  a 
snow-plugged  crevasse  at  the  same  point,  the  snow 
in  the  center  would  sag  down  several  feet  and 
although  we  realized  that  it  would  only  be  a 
question  of  time  before  someone  would  go 
through,  we  plodded  on  doggedly  without  giving 
such  a  possibility  so  much  as  a  passing  thought. 

The  attitude  of  our  Indian  guides,  whose 
names  were  Koomanah  and  Koodleuk,  toward  us 
in  our  ignorance  and  foolhardy  risks,  gave  us  a 
good  insight  into  their  character.  They  could 
not  understand  why  we  did  not  know  as  much 
as  they  did  regarding  the  ice  and  snow,  and  were 
loath  in  giving  us  information. 

Although  they  were  very  cautious  themselves, 
they  paid  no  attention  to  us  whatever,  and  if  we 
attempted  something  in  our  ignorance  of  con- 
ditions, that  was  extremely  hazardous,  they 
never  warned  us  or  paid  any  attention  to  us 
whatever.  Then  when  we  would  ask  them  a 
question  and  they  could  not  answer  it,  they 

112 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

would  not  say  they  did  not  know,  but  would 
stand  mute.  Until  we  learned  to  understand 
their  peculiarities,  we  were  often  very  much 
provoked  at  their  strange  actions.  After  a  time 
we  learned  to  watch  how  they  did  things  and 
then  attempt  to  imitate  them. 

Another  condition  that  made  the  first  stages 
of  our  journey  very  laborious  was  the  fact  that 
we  were  continually  traveling  up  grade.  Where 
the  grade  was  real  heavy,  the  dogs  were  unable 
to  draw  all  our  goods  at  one  time  and  we  were 
compelled  to  leave  a  portion  of  them  cached 
behind  and  then  go  back  after  them.  This 
doubled  the  amount  of  work  to  be  done  and 
greatly  hindered  our  progress.  At  times  the 
surface  was  very  rough  and  we  were  compelled 
to  choose  our  path  carefully  in  order  to  avoid 
the  continual  overturning  of  the  sleds. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  set  down  in  cold  type 
the  hardships  we  endured  at  this  time.  We 
were  all  so  intent  upon  getting  gold  that  nothing 
else  seemed  to  enter  into  the  scheme  of  our  lives. 
Each  man  lived  for  himself  alone. 

During  the  first  week  or  more  on  the  glacier 
we  toiled  on  and  it  was  seldom  that  one  man 
spoke  to  another.  We  would  travel  along  for 
six  or  eight  hours  without  a  word  being  spoken 

113 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

except  to  the  dogs,  which  would  usually  be 
"All  right,  dogs/'  or  "Go  ahead,  dogs."  For 
right  or  left  I  would  only  call  to  Kodiak,  "Ge 
a  little,  Kodiak."  or  "Kodiak,  go  haw." 

Then  when  we  stopped  for  rest  everyone 
seemed  too  weary  to  talk  or  enjoy  any  social 
intercourse  with  the  others  of  the  party.  At 
that  time  we  very  much  resembled  a  party  of 
deaf  mutes. 

After  we  had  been  on  the  glacier  a  week  or 
more,  our  habits  began  to  assume  a  definite  plan 
and  a  sort  of  daily  program  was  carried  out. 
Once  a  day  we  stopped  and  put  up  a  tarpaulin 
to  act  as  a  shield  against  the  cold  winds  that 
were  constantly  blowing  over  the  surface  of  the 
ice. 

Fire  was  started  in  our  cooking  lamps  and  the 
day's  cooking  done,  which  consisted  in  heating 
some  beans  and  making  flapjacks.  After  the 
meal  we  usually  were  ready  to  retire,  and  when 
we  did  not  take  time  to  pitch  our  tents,  we  would 
crawl  into  our  sleeping  bags  and  sleep  on  the 
loaded  sleds  out  in  the  open. 

Every  few  days  and  sometimes  every  other 
day,  we  would  pitch  our  tents  and  cook  some 
evaporated  potatoes  and  beans  and  make  coffee. 
I  have  no  doubt  now  that  our  rations  were  very 

114 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

poor,  but  after  a  hard  day's  work,  everything 
that  was  fit  to  eat  always  tasted  good  and  we 
thoroughly  enjoyed  our  meals. 

From  the  first  I  avoided  eating  bacon  or  pork 
to  any  extent,  having  heard  of  sailors  being 
terribly  afflicted  by  scurvy  in  this  way.  Our 
cooking  while  on  the  glacier  was  done  with  oil 
lamps,  which  we  secured  from  the  natives,  and 
which  seemed  to  produce  more  smoke  than  heat. 
After  a  pot  had  been  hanging  over  a  blaze  long 
enough  to  cook  some  food,  there  would  be  an 
accumulation  of  half  an  inch  of  soot  on  the 
bottom.  Every  time  we  moved  our  tent  this 
soot  was  scraped  off  and  was  left  on  the  top  of 
the  snow. 

The  relief  that  this  one  black  spot  in  the  land- 
scape gave  to  our  eyes  can  hardly  be  imagined. 
For  myself,  I  got  more  satisfaction  out  of  seeing 
those  dirty  black  spots  of  soot,  than  anything 
else  on  the  glacier. 

Besides  these  soot  spots  there  was  nothing  to 
break  the  monotony  of  whiteness,  except  some- 
times when  we  came  near  a  mountain.  We 
could  usually  see  a  faint  outline  which  was  the 
snowline  around  its  edge,  and  down  its  sides 
would  be  several  thread-like  black  streaks. 
These,  we  later  learned,  were  caused  by  great 

115 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

avalanches  of  snow  and  ice  that  broke  away  near 
the  top  and  came  sliding  down,  tearing  great 
furrows  out  of  the  side  of  the  mountain,  bringing 
great  quantities  of  rock  and  earth  down  on  the 
surface  of  the  glacier  through  which  the  moun- 
tains protruded  like  ice-covered  islands  in  the  sea. 

At  different  times  as  we  traveled  on  we  came 
upon  huge  piles  of  different  sizes  of  stones  lying 
on  top  of  the  ice.  These  piles  of  stones  were 
usually  conical  in  shape  and  from  ten  to  twenty 
feet  high  and  their  presence  for  a  time  com- 
pletely mystified  us. 

We  finally  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
had  been  brought  down  from  the  mountains  by 
avalanches  which  had  subsequently  melted  and 
left  the  stones  there.  Being  a  moving  glacier, 
some  of  these  piles  of  stones  were  from  three  to 
eight  miles  from  the  base  of  any  mountain.  The 
glacier  had  evidently  moved  that  far  since  the 
avalanche  had  torn  down  the  mountainside 
years  before. 

It  was  during  our  journey  across  the  glacier 
that  we  saw  the  first  brilliant  displays  of  the 
Aurora  Borealis.  The  light  in  the  northern  sky 
was  much  more  defined  and  brilliant  than  what 
we  saw  at  Yakutat.  It  seemed  to  be  cut  into 
streaks  and  formed  a  perfect  semi-circle,  the 

116 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

center  of  which  was  due  north  and  the  ends 
seemed  to  spread  out  as  they  approached  the 
horizon.  No  blaze  could  be  seen,  and  the  light 
seemed  to  be  a  reflection. 

As  the  nights  were  very  short  and  the  daylight 
only  faded  for  a  short  time,  the  Northern  Lights 
were  not  visible  for  any  great  length  of  time. 
On  account  of  our  thoughts  being  centered  on 
so  many,  other  things,  we  paid  little  attenton  to 
these  displays,  which  were  beautiful  and  made 
night  almost  as  light  as  day. 

We  had  been  on  the  glacier  two  weeks  when  we 
encountered  the  worst  blizzard  that  I  had  ever 
experienced.  As  spring  was  beginning  to  open, 
the  snow  was  wet  and  very  heavy  and  the  flakes 
which  were  very  large  pelted  us  like  snowballs. 
The  blizzard  of  1888  was  nothing  more  than  a 
gentle  April  snow  flurry  compared  with  that 
storm. 

Before  it  had  reached  the  height  of  its  fury, 
we  were  compelled  to  stop  and  attempt  to  build 
some  kind  of  shelter.  The  falling  snow  beat  the 
brims  of  our  sombreros  down  over  our  faces  and 
made  it  impossible  for  us  to  proceed,  even  if  we 
could  have  seen  a  few  feet  ahead. 

Finding  that  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  even 
attempt  to  pitch  a  tent,  we  piled  our  goods  and 

117 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

sleds  one  on  top  of  another  to  act  as  a  sort  of 
windbreak,  and  laid  down  behind  them  in  our 
sleeping  bags. 

The  next  morning  we  found  ourselves  and  our 
goods  buried  under  two  feet  of  snow  and  at  least 
six  feet  of  snow  on  the  other  side  of  our  break. 
The  blizzard  had  abated,  however,  and  we  were 
able  to  proceed  after  considerable  trouble  in 
recovering  our  goods.  This  storm  gave  us  an 
idea  of  what  a  terrific  blizzard  in  Alaska  in  the 
dead  of  winter  really  is.  On  account  of  spring 
being  so  near  at  hand  there  was  not  the  possibil- 
ity of  the  storm  continuing,  but  if  it  had  raged 
unabated  for  several  days,  as  it  often  does  in 
winter,  our  entire  party  would  have  perished. 

Already  we  began  to  find  our  supply  of  oil  for 
cooking  purposes  getting  low,  and  we  had  not 
yet  reached  the  summit  or  back-bone  of  the 
glacier,  which  was  somewhere  near  the  center. 
Because  of  this  fact  and  our  desire  to  make  as 
few  stops  as  possible,  many  of  our  men  started 
to  eat  our  evaporated  articles  uncooked.  This 
caused  them  to  get  very  thirsty  and  as  they 
walked  along  they  got  in  the  habit  of  eating 
snow. 

Almost  every  member  of  the  party  developed 
bad  attacks  of  sore  throat,  which  at  that  time 

118 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

could  be  partly  relieved  by  my  brother-in-law, 
the  physician  of  the  party,  who  had  brought  a 
large  quantity  of  medicines  along. 

Snow  blindness  also  caused  us  much  trouble 
at  this  time,  which,  unlike  the  sore  throat,  could 
not  be  relieved.  Some  of  the  men  howled  with 
pain,  and  I  feared  they  would  go  insane.  When 
the  sunlight  began  to  fade,  we  would  be  relieved 
somewhat,  but  the  semi-darkness  was  very  short. 
During  this  time  the  Aurora  Borealis  was  so 
brilliant  that  it  was  almost  as  bright  as  day  and  it 
was  difficult  to  sleep  at  any  time. 


119 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Physician  of  the  Party  with  Sled  Load  of  Medicines 

Lost  in  Crevasse.    Futile  Attempt  to  Rescue 

Him.     Men  Live  in  Burrowed  Holes  in 

the  Snow.    Even  Dogs  Get  Snow-Blind. 

Two  Others  of  Party  Missing  When 

Camp    on   Summit   Is   Made. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
^r~l|N  April  25th  an  accident  happened 


Gthat  awakened  us  from  the  indiffer- 
Wi  ent  stupor  into  which  the  gold  craze 
had  plunged  us,  and  for  the  first 
time  since  we  started  we  found  time 
for  reflection.  The  snow  had  cov- 
ered the  ice  completely,  making  it 
very  hard  for  us  to  pick  our  way. 
We  had  been  plodding  on  doggedly  with  no 
thought  of  danger  with  the  heaviest  loads 
ahead  of  us  so  that  in  case  of  a  breakdown  the 
lighter  loaded  sleds  could  come  up  and  help  out. 
My  brother-in-law,  the  physician,  who  had  a 
light  load  consisting  of  the  medicines  and  the 
more  valuable  parts  of  our  equipment  was  two 
sleds  ahead  of  me  and  six  sleds  were  ahead  of 
him. 

The  sleds  were  about  a  hundred  feet  apart  and 
no  one  paid  any  attention  to  those  ahead  or 

121 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

behind  and  no  noise  broke  the  silence  except  the 
creaking  of  the  loaded  sleds  and  the  occasional 
shout  of  a  man  to  his  dogs,  which,  on  account  of 
the  stillness  could  be  heard  for  a  great  distance. 

About  noon  as  we  were  going  up  a  fairly  steep 
incline,  suddenly  in  front  of  me  I  heard  the  howl 
of  dogs  and  then  a  man  shout.  I  looked  up  just 
in  time  to  see  my  brother-in-law's  sled  disappear 
from  view.  It  just  seemed  to  drop  out  of  the 
landscape  in  a  flash.  I  realized  immediately 
what  had  happened — my  sister's  husband  lost! 
His  four  dogs  and  sled  containing  all  our  valuables 
gone! 

The  awfulness  of  the  tragedy  seemed  to  settle 
upon  us  in  an  instant;  then  when  I  recovered  and 
tried  to  make  haste  to  the  spot  it  seemed  to 
retard  me.  Cheered  on  by  one  last  forelorn 
hope  that  we  might  be  able  to  rescue  him,  I 
rushed  forward  and  within  a  moment  came  to 
the  hole  in  the  snow  that  covered  the  mouth  of 
that  treacherous  crevasse. 

The  opening  was  about  ten  or  twelve  feet  in 
diameter,  and  as  we  looked  frantically  down  into 
that  terrible  abyss,  all  our  hopes  sank  within  us. 
My  first  glimpse  made  me  feel  sick  at  heart.  I 
was  firmly  convinced  that  nothing  could  be 
done,  yet  I  could  not  help  looking  down  into  that 

122 


'if 


,  * 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

cavern  with  a  glimmer  of  hope  that  was  worse 
than    torture. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  say  just  how  deep  that 
crevasse  was;  we  could  see  down  probably  two 
hundred  and  fifty  feet.  Below  this  there  was 
nothing  but  a  hopeless  blackness,  which  as  our 
vision  arose,  faded  into  dark  green,  which  grew 
lighter  as  you  look  up  and  near  the  top  was  a 
beautiful  shade  of  emerald. 

But  the  beauty  of  the  thing  was  a  hollow 
mockery!  As  we  looked  we  thought  we  could 
hear  faint  distant  sounds,  which,  as  we  listened, 
raised  and  lowered  the  last  glimmer  of  our 
hopeless  hope.  There  before  us  was  that  cold 
lifeless  thing,  immovable  and  as  commonplace 
as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

We  decided  to  let  down  a  rope  and  after  much 
trouble  and  delay,  due  to  our  unnerved  condition 
mostly,  we  got  the  work  started.  Before  we  had 
let  down  a  hundred  feet  of  the  rope  into  the 
hole  it  began  to  get  very  heavy  and  it  required 
several  men  to  hold  it.  We  let  all  of  our  five 
hundred  feet  of  rope  down,  and  that  yawning 
gulf  still  said  "more,  more."  Who  could  have 
said  how  much  more?    It  was  no  use. 

We  had  to  give  up.  Our  oil  was  getting  short 
and  we  had  to  be  moving  or  we  would  all  be 

125 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

lost  on  the  glacier,  which  was  beginning  to 
crack  badly  with  the  snow  melting.  We  had 
trouble  in  tearing  ourselves  away  from  the  scene 
of  the  tragedy  and  leaving  my  brother-in-law 
behind  to  his  fate.    What  a  fate! 

Burdened  with  sorrow  and  completely 
unnerved,  we  continued  our  journey  and 
attempted  to  prevent  another  similar  accident 
by  running  a  rope  from  one  sled  to  another, 
which  everyone  held  as  he  plodded  on.  It  is 
almost  impossible  to  describe  the  utter  despair 
that  followed  us  during  the  next  two  or  three 
days.  We  were  completely  broken  in  spirit  and 
we  lost  interest  in  our  expedition.  Previous  to 
this  time  we  had  thought  little  of  home.  As  the 
lost  man  was  a  near  relative  of  mine  the  sorrow 
connected  with  his  death  fell  most  heavily  upon 
me.  Thoughts  of  home  and  friends  and  my 
folks,  especially  his  wife,  my  sister,  settled  down 
in  my  mind  and  made  my  life  miserable. 

I  well  remember  how  my  faithful  St.  Bernard 
dog,  "Kodiak,"  seemed  to  understand  my  loss 
and  grief  and  offer  me  his  poor  appealing 
sympathy.  The  day  after  the  accident,  as  I  sat 
with  my  head  in  my  hands  grieving  for  my  lost 
relative,  Kodiak  came  up  and  tenderly  licked 
my  gloved  hand;  then  placing  his  fore  paws  on 

126 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

my  knees,  he  uttered  a  low  whine  and  tried  to 
touch  my  face  with  one  of  his  paws.  He  seemed 
almost  human  in  his  solicitude,  and  I  felt  that 
he  was  imploring  me  not  to  worry.  It  did  me 
good. 

As  I  sat  thinking  I  tried  to  solve  some  theory 
as  to  just  how  the  accident  happened.  After 
turning  the  incident  over  in  my  mind,  I  was 
convinced  that  my  brother-in-law  was  walking 
at  the  rear  of  his  sled  as  he  usually  did,  instead  of 
at  the  side.  The  six  sleds  ahead  of  him  which 
were  more  heavily  laden  than  his,  had  passed 
over  this  snow-plugged  crevasse  in  safety,  and 
I  was  inclined  to  think  that  his  dogs  and  probably 
his  sled  had  done  the  same. 

Then,  just  as  he  came  upon  the  crevasse  the 
snow  under  him  gave  way  and  he  caught  hold  of 
the  rear  of  the  sled  to  save  himself.  His  weight, 
however,  was  too  much  for  the  dogs,  which  were 
pulled  backwards  with  the  sled,  and  the  whole 
team  was  dragged  down  into  that  bottomless 
gulf  to  destruction.  His  dog  team  was  one  of 
the  best  in  the  outfit;  he  had  the  black  New- 
foundland I  bought  in  New  York  for  a  leader, 
and  he  sure  understood  what  was  required 
of  him. 

Fred  Weiden,  who  had  been  a  Christian 
Endeavor  worker  in  New  York  City,  and  a  good 

127 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Christian  man,  got  our  party  and  some  of  the 
Manchester  party  together  and  held  a  religious 
meeting — the  first  service  since  we  had  left 
Yakutat.  Up  until  this  time  Weiden  had  been 
the  spirit  of  the  party  and  his  cheerful  disposi- 
tion had  helped  us  wonderfully. 

Although  we  were  beginning  to  get  hardened 
and  less  responsive  than  ever  to  any  social 
intercourse  among  ourselves,  we  joined  in  the 
meeting  as  heartily  as  we  could  and  I  think  it 
did  us  good.  From  that  time  on  I  forgot,  in  a 
measure,  my  grief  over  the  loss  of  my  brother- 
in-law,  which  soon  appeared  like  a  faraway 
incident.  We  somehow  got  an  impression  that 
we  must  be  nearing  the  summit  of  the  glacier, 
and  the  thought  seemed  to  cheer  us  to  some 
extent,  although  our  condition  was  beginning 
to  be  most  pitiable. 

As  we  traveled  on,  the  noises  and  echoes  of  the 
avalanche,  which  sounded  like  distant  cannon- 
ading at  irregular  intervals,  grew  fainter  and 
fainter.  We  also  stopped  pitching  our  tents 
for  the  night,  and  instead  burrowed  holes  in  the 
snow,  just  large  enough  to  contain  our  sleeping 
bags.  This  proved  to  be  better  than  the  tents, 
as  the  snow  did  not  melt  and  it  protected  us 
from  the  severe  winds  that  continually  blew 
down  over  the  ice. 

128 


'it- 


:  f  VI*  C 


k^§ 


w  if 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

On  account  of  the  fact  that  all  our  medicines 
were  lost,  snow  blindness  and  sore  throat  grew 
worse,  because  we  had  nothing  to  relieve  the 
trouble.  Before  our  medicines  were  lost  we 
could  soothe  our  eyelids  with  cold  cream  and 
borax  water. 

Now,  however,  we  were  almost  driven  to 
desperation  by  the  itching  and  some  of  the  men, 
including  myself,  rubbed  their  eyelashes  com- 
pletely off  their  lids.  Several  of  the  men  put 
bacon  fat  on  their  eyes  in  an  effort  to  obtain 
relief,  but  the  salt  in  the  bacon  irritated  their 
eyes  more  and  the  pain  they  were  compelled 
to  endure  was  terrible.  Even  the  dogs  were 
afflicted  with  snow  blindness,  for  whenever  a 
halt  was  made  the  dogs  would  rub  their  eyes 
with  their  paws  and  whine. 

Our  guides,  the  natives  who  had  gone  ahead, 
returned  on  April  28th  and  informed  us  that  it 
would  take  several  days  to  reach  the  summit  on 
account  of  the  rough  character  of  the  ice  over 
which  we  had  to  travel.  We  found  as  we  traveled 
on,  that  the  rough  ice  was  at  the  end  of  a  range 
of  mountains  which  cut  the  glacier  in  two.  We 
had  been  traveling  almost  parallel  to  this  range 
of  mountains  on  one  of  the  forks  of  the  glacier 
and  the  rough  and  hummock  formation  was 

131 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

probably  caused  by  the  mountain  dividing  the 
glacier  as  it  moved  toward  the  sea. 

After  crossing  this  rough  portion  of  the  glacier 
we  camped  on  what  we  thought  was  the  summit 
on  May  4th.  The  surface  of  the  ice  was  much 
like  the  surface  of  rolling  land  and  the  only  way 
we  could  tell  that  the  highest  point  had  been 
reached  was  by  our  sleds,  which  now  seemed  to 
be  running  down  hill  almost  continuously. 

I  was  among  the  first  to  reach  the  summit  and 
with  the  others  pitched  our  tent  for  the  first 
time  in  several  days  and  waited  for  the  others  to 
come  up,  when  it  was  noticed  that  Weiden  was 
not  in  line  with  his  team  of  dogs.  For  several 
days  past  he  had  been  acting  strangely  and  had 
gone  evidently  insane  with  the  pain  from  snow 
blindness  and  lack  of  proper  nourishment. 

Up  until  this  time  he  had  been  the  optimist 
of  the  party,  but  he  suddenly  became  very 
ill-tempered  and  morose  and  refused  to  take  our 
life-line.  He  declared  that  we  were  trying  to  lose 
him  on  the  glacier  and  insisted  on  going  ahead. 
He  had  a  team  of  poor  driving  dogs  and  after 
greatly  delaying  the  progress  of  the  party  he 
finally  consented  to  fall  back  to  the  rear  of  the 

132 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

line.  We  paid  little  attention  to  him  all  this 
day,  as  he  was  coming  silently  along,  and  we  had 
not  missed  him  up  until  this  time. 


133 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Another  Member  of  Party  Loses  Life  by  Falling 

Into  a  Treacherous  Crevasse.     Summit  of 

Glacier  Reached  at  Last    Daring  Coasting 

for  Miles  Down  from  Summit     Men 

Who   Used  Tobacco  Were   Unable  to 

Hold    Up   Their  End   in   Work. 

Oil  Entirely  Exhausted. 

CHAPTER  X. 

HINKING  that  Mr.  Weiden,  who 
was  the  last  man,  was  simply  lag- 
ging behind,  we  did  not  pay  any 
attention  to  his  absence  at  this 
time.  But  when  he  did  not  come  up 
$4  JM  to  camp  after  several  hours,  how- 
ever, Eagen  of  our  party  and  two  of 
the  Manchester  party,  decided  to 
go  back  and  look  him  up.  This  meant  a  sac- 
rifice, considering  the  condition  of  the  men. 
After  walking  about  two  miles,  they  came  to  a 
great  crevasse  in  the  glacier,  which  had  not 
been  noticed  there  as  we  passed  earlier  in  the 
day,  and  the  marks  on  the  snow  at  the  edge  of 
the  yawning  cavern  told  the  wholestory — 
Weiden,  his  team  of  dogs  and  load  of  provis- 
ions lost. 
When  the  three  men  returned  to  camp  and 

135 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

reported  the  terrible  accident,  it  had  little  effect 
on  us.  Since  the  accident  of  several  days  before, 
when  my  brother-in-law  lost  his  life,  a  great 
change  had  come  over  the  men.  The  first  laws 
of  nature,  "self  preservation/'  began  to  assert 
itself.  We  were  so  weary  in  body  and  mind  that 
we  were  not  responsible  for  our  actions;  we  had 
very  little  feeling  left.  The  humanity  that  was 
in  us  was  ebbing  away  and  nothing  was  left  but 
the  animal.  Each  man  was  a  world  in  himself 
and  a  very  narrow  world  at  that. 

Realizing  that  our  oil  was  getting  very  low 
and  that  unless  we  gained  the  timberland  on  the 
other  side  of  the  glacier  and  got  off  the  ice 
within  a  very  short  time  we  would  be  lost.  We 
remained,  however,  two  days  on  the  summit 
taking  a  much  needed  rest,  and  getting  ever- 
thing  in  readiness  for  a  quick  dash  across  the  ice. 
We  partly  cooked  enough  beans  to  last  the  whole 
party  for  several  days  and  as  fast  as  they  were 
cooked  we  would  throw  them  into  a  gunny  sack, 
while  they  were  still  hot.  At  night  they  would 
freeze  into  a  solid  mass  and  pieces  had  to  be  cut 
off  with  a  knife. 

We  also  dried  out  our  equipment.  We  dried 
our  sleeping  bags  by  turning  them  inside  out 
and  hung  some  of  our  clothing,  which  had  become 

136 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

wet,  on  the  poles  of  our  sleds.  We  packed  about 
800  pounds  on  each  sled  and  took  extra  care  in 
strapping  it  down  tight,  as  we  expected  to  coast 
a  good  portion  of  our  downward  journey.  Our 
poor  dogs  had  been  nearly  reduced  to  skeletons 
and  we  expected  to  give  them  a  rest. 

As  soon  as  we  were  ready  to  start  we  sent  two 
men  ahead  to  see  that  there  were  no  crevasses 
ahead  of  us;  we  noticed  a  difference  in  climatic 
conditions.  The  wind  that  blew  toward  us  from 
the  interior  was  not  so  bitter  as  those  on  the 
other  side  of  the  glacier,  but  were  dry  and 
invigorating.  We  coasted  down  the  long  inclines 
recklessly,  but  our  Esquimo  guides  were  very 
cautious  and  although  they  saw  us  go  down 
safely,  they  would  not  attempt  it,  but  broke  a 
new  trail  for  themselves  instead.  Yet  they  did 
not  warn  us  of  any  danger  or  offer  any  suggestions. 

Our  dogs,  released  from  their  sleds,  had  become 
so  harness-hardened  that  they  would  try  to  run 
in  their  old  positions  in  front  of  the  sleds  as  we 
coasted.  In  this  way,  several  of  the  dogs  were 
badly  injured  and  we  had  to  tie  them  on  our 
sleds  also.  Then,  when  the  sleds  stopped,  they 
would  all  take  their  regular  places  in  front  of 
them. 

137 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Although  the  Alaskan  huskies  were  very 
faithful  in  this  respect,  they  were  very  treacher- 
ous and  whenever  our  backs  were  turned  for  a 
second  they  would  attack  our  bacon  sacks. 
Kodiak,  my  big  St.  Bernard,  was  always  on  the 
alert  and  although  he  was  always  as  hungry  as 
any  of  them,  he  would  allow  no  thieving  and  the 
other  dogs  respected  his  great  bulk  and  low 
growl,  which  they  had  learned  to  fear.  Kodiak 
would  often  pounce  upon  them  and  with  his 
superior  strength  and  weight  soon  taught  them 
who  was  master. 

We  coasted  down  grade  more  or  less  for  three 
days,  sometimes  going  from  four  to  seven  miles 
at  a  stretch  without  a  stop.  Then  we  came  to 
more  rough  ice  and  were  compelled  to  pack  our 
goods,  fifty  pounds  at  a  time,  over  a  very  rough 
trail.  This  required  many  relays  back  and 
forth  over  very  dangerous  crevasses.  And  held 
us  up  for  more  than  a  week. 

We  made  our  first  attempt  to  lighten  our 
motor,  which  had  been  our  greatest  burden  up 
until  this  time,  by  taking  off  a  wheel  and  some 
other  pieces  which  could  be  removed  with  a 
monkey  wrench.  The  additional  labor  and 
delay  greatly  disappointed  us,  and  our  despair 
was    increased    by   our   illness.      We    suffered 

138 


MY  DOG  KODIAK, 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

terribly  with  sore  eyes  and  sore  throats  and  we 
simply  had  to  endure  the  pain  with  no  hope  of 
relief.  We  did  what  we  could,  but  it  seemed  to 
get  worse  all  the  time. 

It  was  at  this  point  of  our  journey  over  the 
glacier  when  every  man  of  us  was  on  the  verge 
of  prostration  from  overwork,  illness  and 
improper  nourishment  and  any  special  weak- 
ness, physical  or  mental,  if  we  had  any, 
showed  itself.  During  these  last  days  on  the 
glacier  all  of  our  reserved  strength  was  used  up, 
and  if  the  journey  had  been  much  longer  we 
would  have  perished.  One  thing  that  was  very 
noticeable  to  me  at  this  time,  as  well  as  through- 
out the  rest  of  our  adventure,  was  that  those  in 
the  party  who  were  addicted  to  the  use  of  liquor 
or  tobacco  or  both,  were  always  the  first  to  lose 
heart,  the  first  to  shirk  their  work  and  the  last 
to  want  to  do  anything. 

The  men  who  used  tobacco  were  always  more 
anxious  to  carry  their  tobacco  than  anything 
else.  At  this  time  I  believe  that  if  any  one  of 
those  men  had  been  given  their  choice  of  bread 
and  tobacco  they  would  have  left  the  bread 
behind  and  taken  the  tobacco  with  them.  In 
their  last  stages  of  prostration  and  physical 
collapse,  tobacco  to  them  seemed  to  be  more 

141 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

needful  than  bread.  But  when  at  last  their 
tobacco  was  exhausted  and  they  had  no  more, 
they  thought  at  first  they  could  not  live  without 
it.  But  gradually  they  ceased  talking  of  it 
entirely  and  seemed  better  able  to  hold  up  their 
end,  and  were  more  cheerful  and  had  much  more 
endurance. 

Our  fare  since  leaving  Yakutat,  almost  six 
weeks  before,  had  been  bacon,  beans  and 
coffee,  or  coffee,  beans  and  bacon,  the  only 
change  being  in  what  we  started  to  eat  first. 
By  May  24th  the  snow  had  all  melted  away  from 
the  surface  of  the  glacier,  exposing  crevasses 
everywhere  from  a  few  inches  to  many  feet  in 
diameter.  The  ice  was  very  clear  and  beautiful, 
being  of  a  dark  blue  color,  and  it  was  also  very 
slippery,  which  made  it  treacherous  and  danger- 
ous near  the  opening  of  the  crevasses. 

As  we  neared  the  break-off,  the  crevasses 
became  more  numerous  and  seemed  to  run  in 
every  direction,  and  at  times  we  had  to  walk 
several  miles  out  of  the  way  in  order  to  get 
across  some  of  the  wide  ones.  Sometimes  we 
were  able  to  stretch  a  rope  across  the  mouth  of 
the  crevasses  and  swing  our  goods  over  in  this 
way,  but  in  either  case  we  lost  much  time. 

We  traveled  on  for  several  days  more  as  fast 
as  we  could,  not  daring  to  pitch  our  tent  on 

142 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

account  of  the  slippery  condition  of  the  surface 
of  the  ice.  The  only  sight  that  broke  the  monot- 
ony of  the  ice,  was  large  piles  of  stones  which 
we  encountered  again  some  ten  miles  from  the 
nearest  mountain  which  must  have  been  depos- 
ited there  thousands  of  years  before  by  an 
avalanche. 

As  we  proceeded  the  ice  became  rougher  and 
with  the  increasing  crevasses  greatly  delayed 
our  progress.  It  seemed  that  the  glacier  was 
being  focused  to  a  point  between  two  great 
ranges  of  mountains  and  the  ice  was  crushed 
together  in  such  a  manner  as  to  form  great 
hummocks  of  ice  between  which  were  zig-zag 
crevasses. 

With  all  our  oil  used,  our  plight  at  this  time 
was  even  more  sad  than  ever  before.  Our  last 
ounce  of  strength  was  almost  gone,  as  we  did  not 
dare  to  sleep  for  more  than  an  hour  at  a  time, 
owing  to  the  place  we  were  hemmed  in  at.  We 
had  to  keep  continually  moving  and  with  no 
cooked  food  and  no  means  in  sight  to  cook  any, 
many  of  the  men  were  ready  to  give  up  and  die. 

It  was  in  our  hour  of  darkest  despair,  as  we 
toiled  on  without  purpose,  it  seemed,  when  a 
ray  of  hope  came  to  us  from  the  gurgling  waters 
which  seemed  to  be  everywhere  flowing  away 

143 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

from  the  glacier,  but  could  not  be  seen.  Every- 
where, below  us,  around  us  and  it  seemed  above 
us,  the  rushing,  gurgling  waters  could  be  heard. 
For  a  time  we  were  non-plussed;  then  the 
situation  seemed  to  be  uncanny  and  we  expected 
any  moment  to  break  through  the  ice  and  be 
swallowed  up  in  a  great  caldron  of  roaring  waters. 

Gradually  our  fear  left  us  as  our  senses  became 
accustomed  to  the  unfamiliar  sounds,  and  then 
of  a  sudden,  looking  up,  we  could  see  a  deep, 
dark  timber-covered  ravine  ahead,  clear  of 
snow.  The  effect  of  this  sight  upon  the  men  was 
electrical.  That  scene  looked  like  the  dawning 
of  a  new  day.  Our  eyes  which  for  fifty  days  had 
looked  upon  nothing  but  snow  and  ice  were  so 
rested  by  that  speck  of  color  in  the  landscape, 
that  the  men  immediately  began  to  recover. 

From  that  time  on,  we  toiled  incessantly, 
going  without  sleep  for  several  days,  in  order  to 
get  our  goods  over  the  rough  ice  and  crevasses. 
Until  this  time  we  had  not  mentioned  gold  while 
on  the  glacier.  Indeed,  we  had  almost  forgotten 
where  we  were  going  and  what  we  expected  to 
find.    Now,  however,  we  talked  of  nothing  else. 


144 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

THE  ARCTIC  LOVER 

Gone  is  the  long,  long  winter  night; 

Look,  my  beloved  one! 
How  glorious,  through  his  depths  of  light, 

Rolls  the  majestic  sun! 
The  willows,  waked  from  winter's  death, 
Give  out  a  fragrance  like  thy  breath — 

The  summer  is  begun! 

Ay,  'tis  the  long  bright  summer  day: 

Hark  to  that  mighty  crash! 
The  loosened  ice-ridge  breaks  away — 

The  smitten  waters  flash; 
Seaward  the  glittering  mountain  rides, 
While,  down  its  green  translucent  sides, 

The  foamy  torrents  dash. 

See,  love,  my  boat  is  moored  for  thee 

By  ocean's  weedy  floor — 
The  petrel  does  not  skim  the  sea 

More  swiftly  than  my  oar. 
We'll  go  where,  on  the  rocky  isles, 
Her  eggs  the  screaming  sea-fowl  piles 

Beside  the  pebbly  shore. 


145 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Or,  bide  thou  where  the  poppy  blows, 
With  wind-flowers  frail  and  fair, 

While  I,  upon  his  isle  of  snow 
Seek  and  defy  the  bear. 
Fierce  though  he  be,  and  huge  of  frame, 

This  arm  his  savage  strength  shall  tame, 
And  drag  him  from  his  lair. 

When  crimson  sky  and  flamy  cloud 

Bespeak  the  summer  o'er, 
And  the  dead  valleys  wear  a  shroud 

Of  snows  that  melt  no  more, 
I'll  build  of  ice  thy  winter  home, 
With  glistening  walls  and  glassy  dome, 

And  spread  with  skins  the  floor. 

The  white  fox  by  thy  couch  shall  play; 

And,  from  the  frozen  skies, 
The  meteors  of  a  mimic  day 

Shall  flash  upon  thine  eyes. 
And  I — for  such  thy  vow — meanwhile 
Shall  hear  thy  voice  and  see  thy  smile, 

Till  that  long  midnight  flies. 


146 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Just   as    Relief  Is    Near   Another   Member   of 

Party  Accidentally  Falls  in  Crevasse  and  Is 

Lost.     After  Land  Is  reached  Men  Start 

to   Recover.     Journey  to  Far  Interior 

Begins  in  Earnest.    Manchester  Party 

Leaves    and    Takes   Both   Guides. 

Several  Sustain  Serious  Injuries. 

CHAPTER  XL 


FTER  several  days  of  continuous 
toil,  Mr.  Boyden,  who  had  been  a 
close  companion  of  mine  for  several 
years  before  I  left  New  York,  and 
who  only  went  with  our  party  for 
experience  more  than  he  did  for 
gold,  was  now  in  bad  shape,  barely 
able  to  stand  up.    While  trying  to 


f 

J 

Al! 

1 

mm 

cross  a  three-foot  crevasse,  he  was  pushing  his 
loaded  sled  when,  in  some  manner  he  accident- 
ally slipped  and  fell,  sled  and  all,  out  of  sight. 
He  uttered  a  faint  yell,  and  some  of  the  men 
near  him  tried  to  reach  for  him,  but  he  disap- 
peared so  quickly  it  was  impossible  to  do  any- 
thing for  him.  The  men  realized  the  futility 
of  losing  any  time  and  continued  on.  On  being 
informed  of  what  had  happened  I  was  again 


147 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

thrown  into  deep  grief  for  my  poor  friend  and 
companion. 

We  finally  managed  to  get  to  the  end  of  the 
glacier,  and  there  we  found  an  unexpected 
problem  confronting  us.  From  the  top  of  the 
ice  to  the  ground  below  was  many  feet,  and  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  find  a  safe  trail  down 
through  the  ice  canyons  formed  by  great  bulks 
of  ice.  Then  along  the  edge  of  the  break-off 
flowed  a  rushing,  roaring  river  of  whitish  water 
caused  by  the  melting  ice,  which  grew  less  in 
volume  at  night  when  the  ice  froze,  but  greatly 
increased  during  the  day.  The  gaps  seemed  to 
widen  every  hour. 

We  saw  immediately  the  pressing  importance 
of  getting  off  the  glacier  as  soon  as  we  possibly 
could,  and  traveled  along  the  edge  to  a  hill 
where  there  was  nothing  between  us  and  dry 
land  but  the  roaring  torrent.  Taking  a  heavy 
load  on  his  back  so  that  the  rushing  water 
would  not  sweep  him  down  stream,  one  of  our 
men  waded  through  the  river  with  a  rope  which 
he  tied  to  a  small  tree  on  the  other  side,  and  after 
a  great  amount  of  painstaking  labor  we  were 
able  to  swing  Our  goods  and  equipment  to  terra 
firma  with  pulleys. 

The  break-off  of  the  glacier  at  this  end  was 
much  different  from  the  break-off  at  the  sea. 

148 


CREVASSE  WHERE  ONE  OF  PARTY  WAS  LOST 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

It  was  much  less  abrupt,  and  the  big  icebergs, 
instead  of  breaking  away  and  floating  out  to  sea, 
remained  where  they  were  and  melted  down. 
Rounded  boulders,  large  and  small,  which  had 
evidently  been  rolled  along  under  the  ice  for 
centuries,  covered  the  land  for  several  hundred 
yards  around  the  glacier  where  the  ice  had 
melted  and  left  them.  Then  at  the  edge  of  these 
stones  where  the  ice  had  formerly  been,  the 
timber  line  began. 

One  of  the  most  peculiar  things  we  saw  here 
was  a  "pot  hole"  under  a  cliff  about  twenty  feet 
high,  which  consisted  of  a  round  hole  about  eight 
feet  in  diameter  and  probably  six  feet  deep,  cut 
in  the  solid  rock.  At  first  we  thought  it  could 
have  been  drilled  in  no  other  manner  except 
with  a  steam  drill,  but  we  later  found  that  it 
had  been  formed  by  water  dropping  from  the 
cliff,  which  started  some  large  stone  to  revolve, 
and  it  took  probably  centuries  to  grind  out  this 
hole.  Some  of  the  stones  that  were  still  there 
were  as  symmetrical  and  round  as  marbles,  due 
to  the  revolving  motion  of  the  stones  as  the 
water  poured  upon  them. 

June  2nd  we  finally  managed  to  get  the  last 
of  our  goods  on  land  and  our  first  concern  was  to 
build  a  fire  with  alderwood  on  a  nearby  hill  for 

151 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

the  purpose  of  cooking  some  evaporated  potatoes 
and  apples  and  drying  out  our  clothes.  We 
also  built  fires  in  our  Yukon  stoves  and  made 
some  biscuits;  this  was  our  first  meal  in  several 
days  and  after  pitching  our  tents,  we  lay  down 
for  our  first  good  sleep  in  seven  weeks.  We 
were  in  our  sleeping  bags  continuously  for 
twenty  hours  and  when  we  did  get  up  we  felt 
better  than  we  had  at  any  time  since  leaving 
Yakutat.  Our  beards  had  all  grown  quite  long, 
and  all  of  us  had  lost  much  weight.  For  myself, 
I  think  I  must  have  lost  at  least  twenty-five 
pounds. 

Although  we  had  intended  to  go  much  farther 
north,  the  men  already  began  their  search  for 
gold.  We  got  out  our  gold  pans  only  to  find 
them  sadly  rusted.  We  at  once  began  to  scrape 
the  rust  off  in  order  to  have  them  ready  for  use, 
and  we  immediately  began  to  ask  each  other 
if  anyone  "had  seen  any  color?"  The  men 
picked  up  all  kinds  of  colored  stones,  dug  dirt 
out  of  the  sides  of  the  hills  and  washed  it  in 
their  gold  pans  in  their  efforts  to  find  gold.  The 
gold  pans,  we  found,  were  not  so  easy  to  handle 
properly.  But  we  soon  learned  the  knack  of 
washing  the  water  and  sand  so  that  we  would  not 
cover  ourselves  with  water,  but  would  have  it 
run  out  in  front  at  every  twist  or  turn. 

152 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

We  remained  in  our  camp  at  the  end  of  the 
glacier  for  two  days,  resting  and  getting  ready 
for  the  next  stage  of  our  journey,  which  we 
found  would  be  very  laborious  on  account  of 
having  to  pack  our  goods  all  the  way.  We  sent 
a  number  of  men  out  to  lay  out  a  trail  and  get  an 
idea  of  the  nature  of  the  country.  They  found 
the  land  to  consist  of  a  series  of  ranges  of  hills 
running  across  our  route  north,  which  were 
generally  covered  thickly  by  alders  and  larger 
timber.  There  was  still  much  snow  between  the 
trees,  but  the  ground  was  so  rough  and  the 
underbrush  so  thick  in  places  that  we  were 
compelled  to  carry  the  sleds.  Between  each 
range  of  hills  was  usually  a  stream  and  some- 
times a  lake,  still  covered  with  ice  which  was 
fast  melting. 

We  packed  our  goods  up  over  the  first  range  of 
hills  and  established  a  camp  nicely  located  along 
the  banks  of  these  lakes,  which  were  fed  by 
small  streams.  The  morning  after  we  arrived 
at  this  new  camp,  one  of  the  men  went  to  the 
lake  to  get  a  bucket  of  water  and  he  thought  he 
saw  a  fish.  He  ran  back  to  camp  and  within  a 
short  time  about  ten  of  the  men  got  out  the 
fishing  tackle  we  had  brought  along,  and  were 
casting  their  lines  with  nothing  but  a  piece  of 
salt  pork  on  their  hooks  for  bait.    Their  lines 

153 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

had  hardly  struck  the  water  before  the  fish 
began  to  take  the  bait  and  within  a  very  few 
minutes,  a  fine  mess  of  speckled  salmon  trout, 
each  weighing  from  half  a  pound  to  a  pound  and 
a  half,  were  landed.  Their  meat  was  of  pink 
color  and  I  don't  know  whether  it  was  because 
I  was  so  ravenously  hungry  or  not,  but  I  thought 
at  the  time  that  they  were  the  most  delicious 
fish  I  had  ever  tasted. 

After  a  few  days  more  of  rest  during  which 
time  we  made  final  preparations  for  our  journey, 
we  established  another  camp  about  five  miles 
farther  on  and  started  to  pack  our  goods  over 
the  hills  to  the  new  camp.  Our  plan  was  to 
establish  a  camp  from  five  to  ten  miles  ahead  and 
then  pack  our  goods  to  it  from  the  old  camp, 
working  in  relays  as  we  did  in  approaching 
the  glacier. 

As  soon  as  we  had  all  our  goods  cached  at  one 
point,  we  established  another  camp  from  five  to 
ten  miles  farther  north.  Although  the  work  was 
very  laborious,  our  plan  worked  out  very  well 
and  we  soon  got  used  to  it  and  did  not  mind  it. 
The  weather  got  much  warmer,  the  snow  dis- 
appeared from  the  lowlands  and,  although  the 
nights  were  always  cold,  the  middle  of  the  day 
was  sometimes  very  warm. 

154 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

On  June  12th  the  Manchester  party,  which 
had  traveled  with  us  over  the  glacier  and  who 
also  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  two  men  on  the 
glacier,  decided  to  branch  off  in  a  somewhat 
different  direction.  Their  idea  was  to  travel 
north-east  and  try  to  strike  Dawson  City  while 
at  that  time  we  were  heading  due  north  for  the 
Tanana  River  district. 

According  to  an  old  survey  which  we  had,  we 
reckoned  it  was  about  250  miles  to  Dawson, 
although  it  must  have  been  much  farther.  We 
had  originally  intended  to  strike  for  the  lower 
Mackenzie  River,  which  was  north  of  Dawson; 
but  after  learning  that  there  was  a  wonderful 
supply  of  gold  along  the  Tanana  River,  we 
changed  our  minds.  As  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  learn,  the  men  who  came  to  Alaska  on  the 
Blakely  were  the  only  ones  who  attempted  to 
enter  the  gold  fields  by  the  route  we  took. 

The  Manchester  party  made  better  offers  to 
our  two  guides,  natives  of  Yakutat,  than  we  felt 
they  were  worth  and  we  decided  to  let  them  go, 
as  they  proved  to  be  a  disappointment  to  us  so 
far.  It  was  very  evident  that  they  had  never 
been  over  the  ground  before,  and  we  found  our 
compasses  far  more  reliable  than  their  uncertain 
ideas.  We  were  sorry  to  part  with  the  Man- 
chester party  as  they  were  a  fine  lot  of  fellows. 

155 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

An  advance  party,  which  had  been  sent  out, 
came  back  and  reported  a  river  six  or  seven 
miles  ahead.  After  separating  their  goods,  the 
Manchester  party  set  out  for  the  river,  intend- 
ing, if  its  current  ran  northeast,  to  build  boats 
and  try  to  reach  Fort  Selkirk  by  water  the  first 
of  August.  They  had  a  much  better  equipment 
than  ours  and  the  men  were  now  much  elated 
over  the  prospects. 

After  the  Manchester  party  had  left  us,  we 
saw  quite  a  few  wood-chuck  and  ptarmigan  or 
"fool-hen/'  as  we  called  them,  and  we  cleaned  up 
our  fire  arms  and  opened  up  our  ammunition. 
The  ptarmigan  were  so  stupid  that  they  were 
very  easily  killed  and  although  I  fear  they  are 
about  as  edible  as  a  turkey  buzzard,  when  caught 
out  of  season,  we  ate  them  and  enjoyed  the 
change  in  diet. 

Now,  with  plenty  of  fish  and  ptarmigan,  our 
men  started  to  get  stronger  and  became  them- 
selves again.  All  our  trouble  with  snow  blind- 
ness had  now  mostly  disappeared.  The  dogs 
even  got  strong  and  fat  as  they  had  very  little 
work  to  do.  Again  came  that  insatiable  desire 
for  gold,  which  caused  us  to  wash  out  samples  of 
earth  all  along  our  trail  and  although  we  found 
nothing,  the  possibility  of  making  a  strike  was 
our  main  topic  of  conversation. 

156 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

With  our  party  now  reduced  to  fifteen  men, 
we  packed  steadily  onward  day  after  day  over 
some  rough  hills,  through  ravines  and  across 
streams,  which  at  times  caused  us  much  trouble. 
The  streams  were  not  so  deep  but  were  very 
swift  and  several  of  our  dogs  nearly  drowned  on 
more  than  one  occasion  in  swimming  across. 
On  June  17th,  while  wading  across  one  of  the 
streams  with  a  sailor's  large  clothesbag  on  his 
shoulders,  Tom  Eagen,  the  New  York  police- 
man, stumbled  and  fell  headlong  and  for  a 
moment  was  stunned.  His  bag  was  carried 
down  stream  for  fully  a  mile,  and  he  had  to 
run  this  distance  along  the  bank  in  his  heavy 
wet  clothes  in  order  to  again  recover  it.  When 
he  finally  got  his  water-soaked  bag  to  camp, 
he  was  completely  exhausted,  and  was  confined 
to  his  sleeping  bag  for  several  days. 


157 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


One  Member  Breaks  Wrist.     Member  of  Party 
Shoots  a  Bear  Which  Results  in  a  Change  of 
Menu.     Prospectors  Find  Much   "Fool's 
Gold"    Motor,  Which  Has  Proved  Ser- 
ious Drawback  Is  At  Last  Abandoned 
In  the  Woods  and  Party  Rushes  On. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

T  was  about  this  time  that  I  received 
an  injury,  the  effect  of  which  will 
follow  me  to  my  grave.  I  was 
carrying  a  fifty  pound  sack  of  beans 
down  a  steep  hill  when  I  stumbled 
and  lost  my  footing  and  fell,  or 
rather  rolled,  down  about  fifty  feet. 
When  I  got  up  I  found  that  my 
right  wrist  was  broken  in  two  places.  There  was 
no  one  with  me  at  the  time,  and  I  had  to  carry 
those  beans  two  miles  to  camp  with  a  painful 
broken  wrist. 

When  I  got  back,  the  other  men  set  my  wrist 
as  best  they  could,  using  bark  for  splints,  tearing 
up  some  underwear  for  bandages  and  using  moss 
instead  of  cotton.  From  that  time  on,  for  several 
weeks,  I  was  compelled  to  use  my  left  hand  for 
everything  and  I  became  left-handed.  Although 


159 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

my  wrist  is  now  well  and  in  a  normal  condition, 
I  have  never  entirely  got  into  the  way  of  doing 
things  with  my  right  hand  again. 

But  our  misfortunes  did  not  cause  any  of  us 
to  waver.  After  each  accident  we  felt  sure  it 
was  the  last  and  we  would  soon  reach  our  goal. 
It  is  hard  to  describe  the  condition  we  were  in  at 
this  time.  Hardships  came  to  be  a  matter  of 
course  and  nothing  that  happened  surprised  us 
in  the  least.  Nothing  interested  us  but  gold, 
and  although  we  had  not  seen  a  sign  of  the 
precious  metal,  yet  our  supply  of  optimism 
seemed  to  be  inexhaustible.  It  was  a  selfish 
optimism,  however,  and  it  seemed  to  be  fathered 
by  the  dream  that  we  would  all  go  back  to  New 
York  with  vast  fortunes. 

The  entire  surface  of  Alaska,  as  far  as  we  have 
seen,  is  mountainous.  The  country  is  wild, 
rugged  and  for  the  most  part,  impassable.  In 
spite  of  the  extremely  cold  weather,  hardy 
vegetation  flourishes  luxuriantly  in  the  ravines 
and  lowlands  from  which  the  snow  usually  melts 
in  June.  The  mountains  are  covered  with 
perpetual  snow,  however,  and  vegetation  dis- 
appears as  the  altitude  of  the  land  increases. 

The  mountains  are  very  rocky  and  the  cliffs 
precipitous,  so  that  we  seldom  attempted  to 

160 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

cross  any  of  the  ranges,  but  rather  followed  the 
water  courses.  This  was  also  made  necessary  by 
the  thick  growth  of  alders  and  other  kinds  of 
bushes  in  the  valleys,  which  made  any  kind  of 
travel  most  laborious.  When  we  did  leave  a 
stream,  it  was  always  necessary  to  blaze  a  trail 
through  the  woods. 

In  places  in  the  lowlands,  the  brambles  were 
so  thick  that  it  was  impossible  to  get  through. 
In  other  places  there  was  so  much  decayed 
vegetable  matter  on  the  ground  that  walking 
through  it  was  much  like  walking  through  deep 
snow.  Yet  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  the 
finest  timber  in  the  valleys,  consisting,  for  the 
most  part,  of  spruce,  fir  and  pine  trees.  Some  of 
the  spruce  trees  were  the  most  magnificent  I 
have  ever  seen.  They  ranged  in  height  from  100 
to  150  feet  and  from  four  to  six  feet  in  diameter 
and  were  very  straight  and  symmetrical.  They 
were  very  thick  on  the  ground,  and  for  that 
reason  had  no  lower  branches  which  would  have 
made  them  most  valuable  as  timber  if  there  had 
been  any  way  to  get  it  to  civilization. 

It  was  while  camping  in  a  typical  Alaskan 
forest,  a  few  days  after  I  had  the  misfortune  to 
break  my  arm,  that  Arthur  Wilson  who  had  been 
acting  as  cook  that  week — we  took  turns  in  this 

161 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

capacity — saw  tracks  of  a  huge  bear  about  one 
hundred  feet  from  our  tents.  He  followed  the 
trail  for  a  distance  of  about  two  miles  and  came 
to  a  sort  of  cave  in  the  side  of  the  mountain.  He 
fired  into  the  hole  and  failing  to  drive  the  bear 
out,  burned  his  handkerchief  in  the  opening  of 
the  cave,  causing  the  smoke  to  go  into  the  cave. 
Hearing  a  noise  above  he  looked  up,  and  there, 
fifty  feet  above  him,  he  saw  a  large  cinnamon 
bear  scampering  up  the  side  of  the  mountain. 
He  fired  at  the  fleeing  animal  twice  with  his 
Winchester  25-30  steel  jacket  and  the  bear 
turned  facing  him  and  got  up  on  his  haunches 
and  then  tumbled  forward  down  the  hill  about  a 
hundred  feet. 

Wilson  became  so  excited  over  his  success 
that  he  ran  back  to  camp  without  giving  the 
bear  a  second  look  and  told  his  story  to  us.  In 
another  hour  five  other  men  went  with  Wilson 
to  the  spot  where  the  bear  had  rolled,  but  it  was 
not  there.  A  trail  of  blood  on  the  ground 
brought  them  to  the  opening  of  the  cave,  where 
the  bear  was  found  dead.  The  men  at  once 
skinned  him  and  cut  him  up  as  best  they  could. 
Each  one  gathered  up  all  the  meat  he  could 
carry  and  brought  it  back  to  camp,  leaving  the 
rest  for  the  dogs  to  eat.  We  thought  we  would 
have  a  good  feast  on  the  bear  but  were  dis- 

162 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

appointed.  It  had  a  repulsive,  fishy  taste  and 
was  very  tough,  which  I  thought  was  on  account 
of  its  having  been  killed  out  of  season.  We 
made  a  fairly  good  soup,  however,  by  boiling 
down  large  quantities  of  it  with  some  evaporated 
potatoes  and  onions.  We  cleaned  the  skin  and 
stretched  it  out  on  sticks  to  dry. 

As  we  continued  traveling  northward,  our 
desire  to  find  gold  increased  in  intensity  and 
more  time  was  spent  in  prospecting.  Hundreds 
of  samples  of  dirt  were  dug  out  of  the  ground  and 
sides  of  the  mountains  and  brought  to  camp,  and 
our  hopes  were  always  high  until  Professor 
Merrill,  the  mineralogist  of  the  party,  examined 
them  and  found  that  they  were  either  pyrites  of 
iron,  sulphur  or  copper  or  some  other  quartz, 
which  is  commonly  known  as  "fool's  gold/' 
Sometimes  we  were  so  sure  that  it  was  gold  that 
we  had  found,  that  we  had  even  staked  out  our 
claims  before  we  had  the  samples  analyzed. 

The  prospecting  entailed  a  vast  amount  of 
hard  work  with  pick  and  shovel.  Big  fires  had 
to  be  built  over  the  spots  where  the  earth  was 
taken  out,  except  along  the  streams.  Each 
successive  find  caused  great  excitement  in  camp 
among  us,  as  it  was  always  different  from  any 
previous  find,  and  we  never  had  any  idea  that 
there  were  so  many  kinds  of  "fool's  gold." 

165 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

During  all  of  this  time  the  chief  drawback  to 
our  making  much  progress  was  our  800  pound 
motor,  which  had  cost  us  so  much  money  in 
Seattle.  We  had  tried  many  different  plans  of 
dragging  it  along  since  getting  off  the  glacier 
and  from  time  to  time  had  taken  piece  after 
piece  off  in  order  to  make  our  load  somewhat  less 
heavy.  The  only  practical  way  of  getting  it 
along  was  to  carry  it,  and  we  were  all  so  weary  of 
it  that  we  threatened  many  times  to  leave  it 
behind  if  we  did  not  soon  make  a  gold  strike. 
At  last  one  of  the  party  hit  upon  a  plan  of  build- 
ing a  cart  to  haul  it. 

We  cut  down  a  large  tree,  sawed  out  two 
wheels  and  using  our  crowbar  for  an  axle,  lashed 
two  poles  to  it  so  that  they  would  drag  on  the 
ground  behind;  then  we  placed  the  motor  on 
this  improvised  vehicle.  After  hitching  sixteen 
dogs  to  the  wagon  we  started  to  move  it  along 
at  a  slow  rate.  We  soon  found,  however,  that 
the  ground  was  so  rough  that  our  cart  was  use- 
less and  we  had  lost  much  valuable  time  in 
constructing  it.  We  made  one  last  effort  to 
carry  the  motor  and  finding  it  impossible  we 
finally  on  July  29th,  decided  to  leave  it  behind. 

The  spot  was  marked  and  Harry  Davis  of 
Brooklyn,  our  engineer,  took  bearings  so  that 

166 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

we  might  come  back  and  get  it  some  future  time. 
I  have  his  drawings  yet,  but  I  hardly  think  that 
anyone  could  take  them  and  travel  over  our 
route  from  Yakutat  and  locate  that  motor. 
I  should  judge  that  we  left  it  between  fifty  and 
seventy-five  miles  from  the  glacier.  Our  prog- 
ress, after  leaving  the  motor  behind,  was  much 
faster  than  before  and  we  took  renewed  hope. 

By  this  time  I  could  use  my  wrist  again,  which 
had  been  broken  five  weeks  before,  and  I  was 
now  able  to  do  my  share  of  the  work.  The  nights 
were  starting  to  get  colder  and  we  knew  that 
we  would  soon  be  confronted  with  the  long 
frigid  winter.  Our  clothing  was  about  worn  out, 
but  we  consoled  ourselves  by  the  fact  that  we 
had  another  supply  with  us. 

At  this  time  we  certainly  must  have  been  a 
hard  looking  bunch  of  men  with  our  long  hair 
and  beards,  but  among  ourselves  we  paid  no 
attention  to  our  uncouth  appearance.  Very 
seldom  did  we  brush  or  comb  our  hair  or  try  to 
get  the  kinks  out  of  our  beards.  The  uppermost 
thought  in  our  minds  was  gold  and  we  talked  and 
thought  of  nothing  else. 

And  living  under  the  conditions  we  were,  we 
actually  continued  to  get  stout  and  rugged  from 
hard  work.     I  have  since  thought,  our  almost 

167 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

continuous  diet  of  beans  made  us  fat.  Before 
going  on  this  expedition  I  never  liked  the  taste  of 
beans  and  did  not  eat  them,  and  even  after  we 
started  out  I  ate  very  sparingly  for  quite  some 
time  because  our  diet  was  mostly  beans.  After 
we  got  on  the  glacier,  however,  our  food  did  not 
come  to  be  a  question  of  beans  so  much  as 
something  to  eat.  Sheer  hunger  soon  compelled 
me  to  eat  the  food  I  had  heretofore  detested. 
Since  coming  home  for  some  fifteen  years  I  have 
never  been  able  to  eat  beans,  no  matter  how 
hungry  I  was  or  how  hard  I  tried;  for  a  time  the 
sight  of  beans  made  me  sick.  However,  for  the 
past  year  I  have  taken  a  fancy  to  them  and 
don't  understand  how  I  could  have  ever  disliked 
them. 


168 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

TO  A  MOSQUITO 
Fair  insect!  that,  with  threadlike  legs  spread  out, 

And  blood-extracting  bill  and  filmy  wing, 
Dost  murmur,  as  thou  slowly  saiFst  about, 

In  pitiless  ears  full  many  a  plaintive  thing, 
And  tell  how  little  our  large  veins  would  bleed, 
Would  we  but  yield  them  to  thy  bitter  need. 

Unwillingly,  I  own,  and,  what  is  worse, 
Full  -angrily  men  hearken  to  thy  plaint; 

Thou  gettest  many  a  brush,  and  many  a  curse, 
For  saying  thou  art  gaunt,  and  starved,  and 
faint; 

Even  the  old  beggar,  while  he  asks  for  food, 

Would  kill  thee,  hapless  stranger,  if  he  could. 

I  call  thee  stranger,  for  the  town,  I  ween, 
Has  not  the  honor  of  so  proud  a  birth, — 

Thou  com'st  from  Jersey  meadows,  fresh  and 
green, 
The  offspring  of  the  gods,  though  born  on  earth 

For  Titan  was  thy  sire,  and  fair  was  she, 

The  ocean-nymph  that  nursed  thy  infancy. 

Beneath  the  rushes  was  thy  cradle  swung, 
And  when  at  length  thy  gauzy  wings  grew 
strong, 

Abroad  to  gentle  airs  their  folds  were  flung, 
Rose  in  the  sky  and  bore  thee  soft  along; 

The  south  wind  breathed  to  waft  thee  on  the  way, 

And  danced  and  shone  beneath  the  billowy  bay. 

169 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Scourge  of  Alaskan  Mosquitoes  Attack  Camp  and 

Make  Life  Miserable.    Large  Beaver  Dam 

Causes  Surprise.    Another  Man  Succumbs 

to  Unknown  Disease.    Party  Loses  Track 

of   Date   and    Weather  Gets   Severe. 

Locate  and  Build  Cabin  for  Winter 

Quarters. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 


URING  about  three  weeks  of  our 
r\  \f  journey  through  Alaska,  our  lives 
m  3  were  made  miserable  by  the  mosqui- 
toes, which  were  so  numerous  that 
they  hindered  our  progress  in  a 
hundred  ways.  They  were  much 
larger  than  the  mosquitoes  that  are 
seen  here,  and  they  just  swarmed 
into  everything  we  ate,  and  they  swarmed 
around  our  tents  and  nearly  drove  our  dogs 
crazy.  They  got  into  the  tents  at  night  and 
kept  us  awake.  We  attempted  to  smoke  them 
out,  but  we  found  that  we  were  more  liable 
to  suffocate  ourselves  than  the  troublesome 
insects.  We  finally  got  used  to  them  in  a  way 
and  accepted  them  as  a  matter  of  course. 

It  is  impossible  to  convey  in  mere  words  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  number  of  mosquitoes  that 

171 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

were  always  about  our  camp.  When  we  baked 
flapjacks,  we  placed  a  tin  plate  over  the  top  of 
each  cake  to  prevent  the  mosquitoes  from  getting 
on  them,  but  in  spite  of  all  our  precautions, 
from  a  hundred  to  two  hundred  of  the  insects 
would  be  caught  on  them  when  we  turned  them 
over. 

In  making  bread  or  biscuits  we  would  knead 
the  dough  in  a  cloth  bag,  using  one  hand  in  the 
bag  and  the  other  to  hold  the  mouth  of  the  bag 
shut  so  that  the  insects  could  not  get  in,  but  in 
spite  of  this,  the  dough  would  be  almost  black 
with  bugs  when  it  was  taken  out  of  the  bag. 
Every  cup  of  coffee  we  drank  contained  many 
dead  insects,  which  collected  in  the  bottom  of 
the  cup  with  the  grounds.  We  used  netting 
tied  on  our  hats  and  gathered  around  our  necks 
to  keep  them  away  from  our  eyes. 

At  first  we  were  fearful  of  eating  the  insects 
and  attempted  to  pick  them  out  of  our  food, 
but  within  a  very  short  time  we  abandoned  this 
plan.  Everything  we  ate  was  flavored  with 
mosquitoes.  When  we  went  in  or  out  of  our 
tents  we  crawled  between  the  tent  flaps,  holding 
them  down  tight  around  our  bodies  in  order  to 
try  and  prevent  the  mosquitoes  from  getting  in. 
The  mosquitoes  collected  on  the  mouths  and 

172 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

eyes  of  the  poor  dogs,  and  after  trying  to  rub 
them  off  they  would  run  down  to  some  stream 
and  jump  into  the  icy  water  for  relief.  About 
the  time  we  were  getting  accustomed  to  the 
pests,  they  suddenly  disappeared,  and  we  were 
not  sorry. 

It  was  soon  after  we  recovered  from  the 
scourge  of  mosquitoes  that  I  neglected  writing 
in  my  diary  for  several  days  and  I  lost  track  of 
the  date.  By  considerable  figuring  we  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  about  August  15th, 
and  that  we  were  about  300  miles  from  the 
glacier.  Already,  there  had  been  a  change  in  the 
temperature  and  the  nights  were  beginning  to 
get  very  cold  and  a  considerable  amount  of  snow 
started  to  fall.  Very  little  snow  melted  during 
the  day  and  the  volume  of  water  in  the  streams 
grew  much  less.  Still  we  toiled  on,  hoping  to 
reach  the  gold  fields  before  the  cold  weather 
caused  us  to  go  into  winter  quarters. 

As  we  traveled  along,  John  Henshaw,  of 
Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  saw  the  tracks  of  some  bears 
in  the  snow.  Following  them  up,  he  came  upon 
an  old  cinnamon  bear  and  two  cubs.  He 
succeeded  in  killing  the  cubs  but  the  old  bear 
got  away,  not,  however,  before  she  had  put  up  a 
fierce  fight  for  her  young  and  had  been  wounded 

173 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

twice.  The  meat  of  the  cubs  was  fine  and  was 
the  best  meat  we  got  during  the  entire  time  we 
were  away.  The  dogs,  too,  were  made  happy  by 
the  killing  as  they  had  had  very  little  really  good 
food  for  some  time.  We  dried  the  skins  of  the 
cubs,  which  were  very  soft  and  of  fine  texture, 
and  packed  them  away  for  the  purpose  of  making 
garments  with  them  later. 

A  few  days  later  we  came  upon  a  beaver  dam, 
which  was  built  so  perfectly  that  we  thought  at 
first  it  could  have  been  constructed  by  none 
other  than  human  hands.  We  expected  to  find 
human  beings  about  somewhere.  When  the 
fact  that  it  was  a  beaver  dam  and  had  been 
built  by  beaver,  dawned  upon  us,  we  thought  it 
almost  unbelievable.  The  breastworks  were 
constructed  of  sticks  crossed  and  recrossed;  the 
filling  was  of  small  stones  and  moss  closely 
packed  together.  It  was  about  three  feet  wide 
at  the  top,  thirty-five  feet  long  and  in  places  six 
feet  high,  closing  the  end  of  the  valley,  making 
a  lake  from  two  to  three  hundred  feet  wide, 
which  looked  very  much  like  a  natural  body  of 
water.  The  breast  was  just  as  straight  and 
symmetrical  as  if  it  had  been  constructed  of 
concrete  by  an  engineer. 

We  remained  at  the  dam  for  two  whole  days 
hoping    that    the    industrious    animals    would 

174 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

appear  and  we  would  get  a  shot  at  them.  We 
did  not  understand  their  characteristics  and 
could  not  understand  why  we  were  unable  to  see 
any  of  them.  Later,  when  we  learned  that  the 
only  way  to  catch  beavers  is  to  break  a  place  in 
their  dam  and  then  set  traps  near  the  break,  we 
felt  like  novices.  We  had  a  large  number  of 
traps  with  us,  and  would  no  doubt  have  captured 
some  of  the  beavers  if  we  had  set  them  and  then 
gone  away. 

Up  until  this  time  every  member  of  our  party 
had  been  in  robust  health  ever  since  leaving  the 
glacier.  Having  lost  all  our  medicines,  and  there 
being  no  one  along  who  had  any  direct  medical 
knowledge,  we  felt  that  we  must  keep  well  and 
this  determination  on  our  part,  I  think,  helped 
us.  The  climate,  too,  I  think  had  an  effect. 
Almost  every  day  we  got  our  feet  wet  and  they 
remained  wet  until  our  shoes  dried  out,  but  not 
one  of  the  party  ever  got  a  cold. 

On  August  26th  Andrew  Maddis,  of  Bridge- 
port, Conn.,  who,  up  until  this  time,  had  been  a 
very  willing  hard  working  fellow,  took  sick.  He 
remained  in  his  sleeping  bag  and  we  soon  found 
that  he  was  suffering  from  a  high  fever.  In  that 
barren  region  there  was  little  we  could  do  for 
him.    We  put  snow  on  his  forehead  and  heated 

175 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

stones  and  placed  them  against  his  stomach, 
but  our  efforts  to  counteract  the  fever  had  little 
or  no  effect.  How  we  did  miss  the  medicines, 
but  we  could  only  let  the  poor  fellow  lay  there 
and  suffer,  always  trusting  and  hoping  he  would 
get  well.  Besides  this  he  became  very  sore  from 
lying  on  the  hard  sleds,  so  we  put  the  three  bear 
skins  we  had  on  his  sled. 

He  continued  to  grow  worse.  Becoming 
delirious  attempted  to  get  up  and  go  back  home. 
By  this  time,  however,  he  was  so  weak  that  he 
could  hardly  move,  and  on  August  28th,  he  died. 
We  dug  a  grave  where  he  died  and  buried  him 
as  best  we  could.  His  death  cast  a  gloom  over  us 
that  seemed  to  follow  us  for  days.  Being  in 
much  better  physical  condition  than  we  were  on 
the  glacier,  we  felt  the  loss  of  Maddis  much  more 
keenly  than  the  death  of  our  other  comrades, 
whose  bodies  were  held  in  the  awful  grip  of  the 
glacier. 

It  was  not  until  this  time  that  we  began  to 
realize  our  awful  predicament.  We  wondered 
what  had  been  the  cause  of  poor  Maddis*  death, 
and  thought  it  might  have  been  typhoid  fever 
contracted  as  the  result  of  eating  so  many 
mosquitoes.  If  this  were  so,  we  feared  that  we 
would  all  get  the  disease  as  we  all  ate  the  same 
food  and  drank  the  same  water. 

176 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

As  we  trudged  on,  fearing  every  minute  that 
some  other  member  of  the  party  would  be  the 
next  victim,  the  gloom  that  at  first  seemed  to 
pervade  everything  gradually  lifted  and  the 
hard  work  distracted  our  thoughts.  We  came 
finally  to  a  fairly  level  stretch  of  territory  and 
began  to  follow  a  stream  that  flowed  in  the 
direction  we  were  going. 

We  established  our  camps  ten  miles  apart 
now  and  made  much  better  progress,  as  we  had 
become  hardened  to  packing  from  50  to  100 
pounds  on  our  backs.  We  saw  tracks  of  all 
kinds  of  animals  in  the  snow,  but  did  not 
attempt  to  hunt  any  of  them,  as  we  did  not  wish 
to  lose  any  time.  Every  day  it  continued  to  get 
perceptibly  colder  and  we  were  anxious  to  stake 
a  claim,  and  settle  down  for  the  long  winter  that 
was  soon  to  be  upon  us. 

The  stream  we  had  been  following  continued 
to  get  wider  and  wider  until  it  became  quite  a 
river.  We  decided,  after  consulting  our  maps, 
that  we  must  have  reached  the  Tanana  River. 
We  had  again  lost  all  track  of  days  and  dates 
as  the  great  arctic  night  was  coming  on.  There 
was  just  a  little  illumination  every  twenty-four 
hours  from  the  sun.  It  must  have  been  some 
time  in  September  when  we  pitched  camp  and 

179 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

divided  into  two  parties;  one  took  provisions  for 
a  week  and  went  on  a  prospecting  expedition  into 
the  nearby  mountains;  the  others  looked  about 
for  a  good  site  to  build  a  cabin  for  protection 
during  the  long,  cold  winter  which  was  very  near. 

I  remained  at  the  camp  and  helped  to  con- 
struct the  cabin.  We  at  first  selected  a  site  near 
the  foot  of  a  mountain,  but  when  we  thought  of 
the  avalanches  we  had  seen  sliding  down  the 
mountain  sides,  the  spring  before,  we  changed 
our  plans  and  started  to  build  it  on  a  hill  over- 
looking the  river.  None  of  us  were  skilled  in 
building  and  our  cabin  proved  to  be  a  very  crude 
affair.  It  was  ten  by  twenty,  built  for  the  most 
part  of  poplar  wood  which  was  the  easiest  to  cut. 

It  was  a  typical  log  cabin  with  the  logs  crossed 
and  grooved  at  the  ends  to  act  as  a  mortise. 
We  were  fortunate  in  finding  a  kind  of  mud  down 
by  the  river  bank  with  which  we  plastered  up  the 
cracks  on  the  outside  which  dried  out  as  a  brick. 
We  planned  to  build  a  stone  fireplace  with  the 
chimney  on  the  outside,  cut  a  door  about  three 
feet  high  and  two  and  a  half  feet  wide  through 
one  side  as  well  as  two  small  windows;  these 
details  presented  the  greatest  difficulties. 

The  first  chimney  we  built  was  of  rough  stones 
but  before  it  was  finished  we  found  that  we  would 

ISO 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

have  to  rebuild  it.  We  pushed  it  over  and  for 
days  we  did  the  hardest  kind  of  work  searching 
the  river  banks,  a  mile  away,  for  large  flat  stones 
which  we  carried  back  to  the  cabin  for  the 
chimney.  After  it  was  completed,  we  banked 
dirt  up  around  the  outside  and  we  congratu- 
lated ourselves  on  our  good  job. 

In  constructing  the  door  and  windows  we  had 
to  have  boards  which  we  made  by  digging  a  pit 
and  placing  the  end  of  a  log  over  the  mouth  of 
the  hole,  then  laboriously  whip-sawing  them 
lengthwise.  When  the  door  was  finally  com- 
pleted, it  was  the  crudest  part  of  the  house  or 
cabin,  rather.  For  glass  for  our  windows,  we 
had  nothing  but  the  greased  paper  in  which  our 
hams  and  bacon  had  been  wrapped.  Although 
there  were  several  thicknesses  the  paper  was 
very  frail  and  it  served  the  purpose  much  better 
than  we  had  expected,  yet  it  had  to  be  renewed 
very  frequently. 

After  completing  the  cabin  we  gathered  great 
quantities  of  moss  which  we  put  in  our  bunks 
for  bedding;  we  also  pushed  this  into  the  cracks 
between  the  logs  of  the  cabin.  By  the  time  we 
had  finished  furnishing  our  house  it  was  a  toler- 
ably comfortable  place.  A  roaring  fire  could  be 
built  in  the  big  fireplace,  and  as  the  weather  had 

181 


MAD  RUSH  FOE  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

not  yet  begun  to  get  severe  we  could  keep  the 
cabin  good  and  warm.  But  this  suggested  a 
new  problem — fuel.  We  set  to  work  at  once  and 
started  to  cut  green  wood  and  pile  it  about  the 
cabin  until  we  had  about  eight  cord;  we  thought 
it  enough  to  last  for  all  winter.  We  killed  many 
wood-chucks  and  as  fish  was  very  plentiful  we 
again  had  some  variety  to  our  food.  The  dogs 
soon  became  lazy  and  fat  and  slept  around  the 
fireplace  all  day. 

While  we  had  been  on  the  alert  for  gold  ever 
since  leaving  the  glacier  and  had  examined  hun- 
dreds of  samples  of  dirt,  we  washed  out  and  also 
staked  out  several  claims;  we  had  not  begun  pros- 
pecting in  earnest  until  the  prospecting  party, 
which  left  the  camp  several  days  before  came 
back.  The  men  returned  while  we  were  still 
building  the  cabin  with  a  large  number  of  copper 
nuggets,  the  size  of  a  pea  and  many  garnets 
imbedded  in  a  sort  of  sandstone,  as  well  as  a 
number  of  samples  of  dirt,  which  we  washed 
through  the  rockers  for  "color."  None  was  found 
and  after  talking  the  matter  over  we  decided  that 
a  good  copper  mine  would  pay.  We  had  our 
engineer,  Mr.  Davis,  lay  out  a  homestead  claim 
where  they  had  found  the  copper  and  place  large 
stakes  at  each  corner  with  our  company's  name 
cut  in  the  wood.    Whenever  the  men  had  any 

182 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

spare  time  on  their  hands  they  would  occasion- 
ally play  cards,  or  have  a  dog  running  race  or 
jumping  contest. 


183 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Much  Wood  Was  Cut  for  Coming  Winter.    Three 

Members  of  Party  Want  to  Break  Camp  and 

Follow  Onward  Trail.    Breach  Grows  and 

Men  Finally  Part.     Halderman,  Eagen 

andBohnGo  Ahead  in  Terrible  Winter 

and  Are  Never  Heard  From  Again 

by  Former  Companions. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

T  was  too  late  in  the  season  to  begin 
any  active  mining  operations.  We 
were  compelled  to  settle  down  and 
face  the  long  cold  dreary  winter. 
It  was  not  until  now  that  we  had 
time  to  reflect  on  our  condition. 
We  began  to  think  of  the  seven  long, 
weary  months  that  we  would  have 
to  wait  before  we  could  again  venture  out  in 
the  open.  We  began  to  feel  most  keenly  the 
friendships  and  comforts  we  had  left  behind. 
We  reflected  bitterly  that  we  were  nine  long 
months  travel  away  from  New  York. 

Up  until  this  time  our  thoughts  of  going  home 
had  never  entered  our  minds,  but  now  we  began 
to  fear  the  great  unknown  darkness  ahead  of  us. 
Until  this  time,  it  seemed  our  thoughts  were 

185 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

occupied  with  pushing  on,  but  now  when  we 
were  compelled  to  sit  down  and  wait  with  no 
notion  of  what  to  expect,  the  situation  became 
as  terrible  as  it  was  unexplainable. 

If  we  had  known  for  a  certainty  that  we  could 
not  have  survived  the  winter  and  that  at  a 
certain  time  all  would  succumb,  it  would  have 
been  a  relief  to  our  mental  anguish  during  the 
first  few  weeks  of  the  winter.  Rough  and 
irreligious  as  almost  all  of  the  men  were  at  this 
time,  we  placed  our  trust  in  Almighty  God. 
There  was  nothing  else  for  us  to  do.  It  is 
wonderful  how,  when  a  man  is  reduced  to  his  last 
extremity,  when  life  has  been  stripped  of  all  its 
artificialities  and  a  man's  soul  is  laid  bare,  he 
will  turn  almost  instinctively  to  his  Creator. 

Whether  or  not  a  man  professes  any  religion, 
there  is  inherent  in  him  a  feeling  of  reliance  upon 
some  Higher  Power  which  is,  in  some  mysterious 
way,  responsible  for  him.  If  this  feeling  had  not 
taken  possession  of  us  and  came  out  as  promi- 
nent as  any  material  thing  around  us,  from  that 
awful  background  of  our  mental  anguish,  we 
would  all  have  been  raving  maniacs  before  a 
month  had  passed. 

A  peculiar  fact  in  connection  with  our  wan- 
derings after  our  first  few  days  on  the  glacier 

186 


mWm 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

was  that  each  one  of  us  thought  that  all  the  rest 
were  crazy,  and  he  alone  was  in  a  rational  frame 
of  mind.  As  a  result  no  one  put  any  confidence 
in  what  another  had  said,  and  we  could  gain  no 
comfort  from  each  other's  advice  or  opinions. 

I  have  thought  since  that  our  unnatural 
existence  had  affected  all  our  minds  and  at 
times  everyone  of  us  was  partially  insane.  We 
did  not  have  the  same  feeling  toward  one 
another  that  we  would  have  had  under  ordinary 
circumstances.  We  acted  like  a  pack  of  animals 
and  had  it  not  been  for  that  feeling  of  a  reliance 
upon  our  Creator,  that  came  to  us  through  no 
effort  of  our  own,  there  would  have  been  nothing 
in  us,  but  animal  left. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  winter  we  continued 
to  cut  wood  and  pile  it  up  near  the  cabin;  to 
go  out  hunting  for  mink,  otter  and  wood-chuck 
for  food  in  order  to  save  our  beans  and  flour, 
as  it  will  be  understood  that  we  only  intended  to 
stay,  at  the  most,  one  year  and  had  only  an 
eight  months'  supply  with  us.  We  were  soon 
prevented  from  hunting  to  any  extent  by  the 
snow  storms  which  exceeded  anything  in  fury 
that  I  have  ever  seen  here. 

The  greater  part  of  the  snowfall  in  Alaska 
comes  in  the  early  winter  and  spring,  and  the 

189 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

blizzards  come  so  suddenly  that  there  is  no  way 
to  forecast  their  approach.  The  winds  blow 
hurricanes  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  exist 
for  any  length  of  time  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the 
elements.  We  knew  it  would  be  impossible  to 
follow  any  trail  or  to  locate  our  cabin  were  we 
to  be  caught  out  in  these  storms,  so  we  kept  to 
our  cabins.  The  snow  would  sift  in  a  dozen 
places  until  it  was  banked  up  on  the  outside  to 
above  the  roof.  , 

After  finishing  our  cabin  and  settling  down  to 
the  routine  of  a  life  of  waiting  for  the  long  winter 
to  pass,  Halderman,  one  of  our  men  from  New 
York,  became  alarmed  at  our  condition  and 
wanted  to  push  on  down  the  river.  We  had 
little  to  do  at  this  time,  but  discuss  our  troubles 
and  conditions.  At  first  no  one  thought  Halder- 
man meant  what  he  said,  but  after  discussing 
our  conditions  and  prospects  for  days,  he 
gradually  drew  Tom  Eagen,  the  New  York 
policeman,  and  Henry  Bohn,  of  Providence,  who 
was  clerking  in  New  York  when  he  joined  our 
party,  to  his  side  and  we  would  sit  and  argue 
and  speculate  for  hours  every  day. 

Although  none  of  us  knew  anything  about  the 
surrounding  country  nor  where  the  river  went, 
Halderman  contended  that  there  must  be  a  min- 

190 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

ing  camp  or  a  native  village  not  far  away,  and 
wanted  our  party  to  set  out  immediately,  follow 
the  river  until  we  came  to  some  human  habita- 
tion. There  he  contended  we  could  get  our 
bearings  and  make  our  way  to  Dawson. 

While  he  had  no  reason,  whatever,  from  which 
to  draw  such  a  conclusion,  he  repeated  his  plan 
so  often  that  both  Eagen  and  Bohn  felt  that 
there  was  no  doubt  but  that  he  was  right, 
although  they  did  not  know  why.  The  majority 
of  the  party  argued  that  Halderman's  plan 
could  not  but  result  in  death  for  all  of  us,  but  the 
more  we  discussed  it,  the  wider  became  the 
breach  between  us. 

By  this  time  it  was  snowing  continuously  and 
we  were  again  compelled  to  use  our  snow-shoes 
when  we  went  out  in  the  open,  as  the  fall  was 
very  soft.  The  river  also  had  begun  to  freeze 
over;  every  day  it  seemed  that  the  great  arctic 
winter  was  tightening  its  grip.  Instead  of 
causing  Halderman  and  his  two  friends  to  accept 
their  fate  and  remain  with  us,  the  severe  weather 
only  caused  them  to  get  more  anxious  and 
restless. 

They  talked  and  planned  among  themselves 
and  worked  themselves  into  such  a  condition  of 
mind  that  we  found  we  could  not  keep  them 

191 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

from  leaving  us.  Under  the  terms  of  agreement 
which  we  had  all  signed  before  leaving  New 
York,  all  the  tools,  equipment  and  foodstuff 
belonged  to  the  party  as  long  as  the  majority  of 
the  party  held  together  and  we  threatened  to 
allow  them  nothing  if  they  left  us,  but  our 
threats  had  little  effect. 

Finally  we  decided  to  divide  our  food,  pro 
rata,  but  not  our  equipment.  We  gave  each  of 
the  three  men  an  axe,  a  shovel,  a  Winchester 
rifle  and  two  dogs.  Two  days  after  the  division, 
they  started  on  their  aimless  mission,  feeling 
confident  they  would  reach  some  human  habita- 
tion, where  they  could  either  spend  the  long 
winter  in  comfort  or  find  their  way  to  Dawson 
City.  As  we  bade  them  good-bye  and  watched 
their  dark  forms  disappear  down  the  river  in 
the  gathering  gloom  of  that  long  arctic  night, 
we  looked  upon  them  for  the  last  time.  No 
tidings  of  them  ever  reached  civilization,  and 
they  must  have  perished  within  a  few  miles  of 
our  camp,  as  travel  at  this  season  of  the  year 
was   impossible. 

Reduced  now  to  eleven  men,  we  faced  a 
terrible  winter  of  loneliness,  idleness,  privation 
and  suffering  from  cold.  As  I  look  back  upon 
that  gloomy  time,  I  feel  that  the  only  thing 

192 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

that  kept  us  alive  was  our  trust  in  God.  The 
transformation  that  had  come  over  us  was 
astounding.  From  an  irreligious  party  of  adven- 
turers, we  had  been  converted  to  a  firm  belief  in 
God.  We  had  no  church,  no  creed,  no  reason  for 
the  change  in  our  attitude  toward  our  Creator, 
except  our  condition. 

We  were  at  a  loss  to  explain  the  change  in  our 
ways  ourselves,  but  it  all  seemed  to  be  so  natural 
under  the  circumstances  that  we  thought  little 
about  it.  We  had  but  one  Bible  in  the  party; 
this  was  read  in  turn  by  every  man  by  the  light 
of  the  wood  fire,  and  so  assiduously  did  we 
continue  our  reading  that  in  time  our  eyes  were 
afflicted  as  badly  as  if  by  snow-blindness. 

As  our  troubles  continued  to  accumulate, 
nothing  could  shake  our  firm  belief  that  we 
would  yet  make  a  rich  strike.  We  talked  it  over 
and  over  so  many  times  that  we  came  to  believe 
that  near  where  we  found  the  copper  nuggets  and 
the  ledge  of  garnets,  there  was  gold.  Even  Mr. 
Merrill,  our  mineralogist,  who  knew  by  reason  of 
his  scientific  knowledge  that  there  could  be  no 
gold  there,  came  to  agree  with  us  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  we  asserted  it  so  often,  that  he 
actually  believed  it  and  longed  for  the  winter  to 
break  so  that  we  could  begin  work.    Our  picks 

193  N:>- 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

and  shovels,  which  had  begun  to  rust  were 
brought  out  from  under  the  bunks  and  cleaned 
up.  The  men  never  seemed  to  get  tired  of 
greasing  and  polishing  them.  Yet  the  winter 
had  by  this  time  only  fairly  begun. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  cold  weather 
before  the  snow  became  so  deep  as  to  make 
travel  difficult,  a  party  of  four  men  would  go  out 
hunting  with  all  the  dogs.  Although  they  usually 
returned  without  a  thing,  the  trips  gave  our  lives 
a  little  variety  and  helped  to  keep  the  men  in 
good  spirits.  Later  when  the  snow  became  very 
deep  and  the  mercury  dropped  to  from  thirty  to 
sixty  degrees  below  zero,  we  kept  to  our  cabin 
and  the  men  became  very  inactive. 

There  was  nothing  to  do  but  wait — we  had  no 
idea  how  long.  Outside  the  great  arctic  night 
had  settled  down.  The  frozen,  innate  landscape 
never  changed.  The  weird  desolation,  the  stark 
grewsomeness  of  the  trees  that  here  and  there 
protruded,  through  a  whiteness  that  had  no  end, 
caused  a  hopelessness  to  settle  on  us  that  made 
the  men  sullen  and  morose. 

Yet,  withal  there  is  something  awe-inspiring 
about  Alaska  in  the  dead  of  winter  that  I  cannot 
refrain  from  setting  down,  although  we  did  not 
appreciate   it   then.     The   long   silences   were 

194 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

broken  now  by  the  weird  sighing  of  the  fierce 
winds  that  seemed  to  sweep  over  the  world  with 
a  frigid  intensity  that  was  appalling.  The 
reverberating  roar  of  a  giant  avalanche  as  it 
thundered  and  crashed  down  the  side  of  a  moun- 
tain, combined  to  remind  us  of  the  sublimity  of 
creation. 

All  the  little  things  in  life — the  details — 
seemed  to  have  been  banished  and  nothing  but 
the  grandest  and  most  profound  demonstrations 
of  nature  were  left.  The  snow  snuffed  out 
everything  but  the  towering  mountains,  which 
seemed  to  become  our  friends;  they  grew 
commonplace  in  that  land  of  gigantic  settings. 

With  the  exception  of  those  terrible  sounds 
that  disturbed  us  with  their  awfulness  and 
continued  so  that  they  too  became  monotonous, 
there  was  little  change  in  any  of  the  manifesta- 
tions of  nature.  The  air  was  so  clear  and  crisp 
that  it  seemed  ordinary  sounds  were  much 
louder  there  than  elsewhere.  When  any  of  the 
men  would  yell  at  the  door  of  our  cabin  it  could 
be  heard  echoing  and  re-echoing  back  and  forth 
between  the  mountains  four  or  five  times  before 
it  finally  died  away. 

It  was  always  cold.  At  times  we  turned  the 
dogs  out  for  a  frolic  in  the  snow;    when  they 

195 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

insisted  upon  coming  right  back,  we  knew  that 
it  was  colder  than  usual.  With  these  conditions 
surrounding  us,  we  waited  and  grew  impatient 
with  waiting.  My  faithful  St.  Bernard  dog, 
which  had  become  the  pet  of  all  the  remaining 
party,  would  silently  sit  before  the  fire.  The 
moment  any  one  of  the  husky  dogs,  which  we 
bought  at  Yakutat,  would  go  near  where  we  had 
our  provisions  stored  behind  some  logs  at  the 
foot  of  our  bunks,  he  would  utter  a  low  growl 
which  sent  them  back  to  their  places  cowering; 
they  had  great  respect  and  fear  for  Kodiak.  It 
was  impossible  to  make  friends  of  the  huskies, 
for  while  they  were  natural  workers  in  harness, 
they  could  not  be  trusted  for  a  second;  many  a 
beating  they  received  from  the  men  in  an 
endeavor  to  train  them  for  a  house  dog.  At 
times  when  all  was  quiet  they  would  start  to 
yell  and  nothing  on  earth  could  stop  them,  even 
Kodiak  would  take  up  the  yell. 


196 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Party  Suffers  Terriby  During  Long  Winter.    All 

Record  of  Time  Is  Lost.    Continuous  Wood 

Fire  Causes  Painful  Disease  to  Attack  the 

Men's  Eyes.    Systematic  Exercise  Keeps 

One  of  Party  in  Good  Condition.  Men 

Compelled  to  Cut  More  Wood  for  Fuel. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

JURING  that  long,  cold,  desolate 
winter  we  lived  like  animals.  The 
fact  that  we  managed  to  exist  at  all 
appeals  to  me  now  as  being  a 
miracle.  There  was  nothing  for  us 
to  do  but  to  keep  ourselves  alive, 
and  it  was  not  until  now  that  we 
began  to  realize  how  all  the  com- 
forts and  activities  of  civilization  make  life 
worth  living.  Life  without  hope,  without  friends, 
without  ambition  and  with  nothing  but  the  bare 
necessities  of  living,  is  punishment  that  will 
sooner  or  later  drive  a  person  insane.  I  firmly 
believe  that  our  sufferings  and  hardships  during 
that  terrible  winter  helped  us  to  live  through  it 
and  kept  our  minds  occupied  to  an  extent  that 
prevented  our  becoming  entirely  demented. 

There  was  little  or  no  ventilation  in  our  cabin, 
as  the  two  small  windows  we  had,  we  were 


197 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

compelled  to  cover.  We  also  filled  every  crack 
we  could  find  with  moss;  the  large  fireplace, 
however,  acted  as  a  vent  where  all  the  foul  air 
was  drawn.  During  most  of  the  winter,  it  was 
so  cold  that  ice  formed  within  two  feet  of  the 
fire,  which  was  never  allowed  to  go  out. 

We  seldom  changed  our  clothes  and  probably 
four-fifths  of  the  time  was  spent  in  our  sleeping 
bags.  We  kept  a  pot  of  water  over  the  fire  all 
the  time,  and  cooked  our  food  but  once  at 
intervals  of  twenty-four  hours.  Although  we 
still  had  plenty  of  provisions,  we  ate  very 
sparingly  and  lived  upon  about  one-third  the 
quantity  of  food  required  when  we  were  working 
hard.  Still  we  all  became  quite  stout  from 
idleness,  but  we  soon  found  that  the  flesh  we 
were  accumulating  was  not  a  healthy  gain. 

Although  we  had  long  lost  the  record  of  time 
before  the  continual  cold  of  winter  had  settled 
down,  we  could  tell  each  day  as  it  passed  along 
as  the  sun  was  visible;  but  now  we  lost  even  a 
record  of  the  days  for  there  was  no  day.  Time 
was  simply  one  vast  span  of  eternity — no  days, 
no  nights,  no  weeks,  no  months. 

There  was  nothing  by  which  to  measure  the 
passing  of  time,  except  perhaps  the  growth  of  our 
beards.     All  we  could  do  was  to  guess  and 

198 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

speculate.  Some  of  the  men  who  had  watches 
kept  them  running  and  every  twenty-four  hours 
would  cut  a  nick  in  a  stick.  This  plan  would 
continue  maybe  for  weeks  and  then  sometimes 
the  watches  would  run  down  and  we  would  lose 
count.  All  that  we  knew  of  that  long  winter 
was  several  portions  of  time  calculated  in  this 
way  and  cut  in  sticks,  but  this  only  furnished 
more  subject  matter  for  discussion  as  the  great 
darkness  dragged  on. 

The  hardest  part  of  our  confinement  was  our 
lack  of  amusement.  Even  the  devil  himself 
seemed  to  be  powerless  to  find  something  for  our 
idle  hands  to  do.  We  talked  of  everything  we 
ever  knew.  Each  man  heard  the  genealogy  of 
every  other  man  in  the  party  until  we  could 
repeat  it  all  from  memory.  Every  poem,  or 
song,  or  hymn  that  any  of  the  members  of  the 
party  knew  was  repeated  or  sung  so  often  that 
all  of  us  knew  it. 

Everyone  of  us  made  confessions  of  his  past 
life,  simply  for  something  to  say  that  could  not 
have  been  wrung  from  him  by  the  most  severe 
third  degree  methods  under  ordinary  conditions. 
Every  man  in  the  party  knew  every  other  man 
better  than  it  is  possible  for  human  beings  to 
know  each  other  under  any  other  conditions. 

199 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Every  thought  that  any  of  us  had  was  expressed, 
not  as  a  confidence,  but  simply  as  a  subject 
for  speech. 

When  we  would  get  tired  from  singing  or 
talking  we  would  write  in  our  diary  or  whittle 
on  the  logs  in  the  cabin  with  our  knives.  During 
that  winter  the  interior  of  our  cabin  was  written 
over  several  times  and  the  amount  of  wood  that 
was  cut  up  in  chips  and  carved  into  grotesque 
shapes  was  astounding. 

In  the  back  of  our  memorandum  books,  was  a 
set  of  rules  for  first  aid  to  the  injured,  tables  of 
weights  and  measures,  and  before  the  winter 
was  very  far  advanced  everyone  of  us  could 
repeat  what  was  in  that  book  from  memory,  but 
so  thoroughly  did  we  learn  these  rules  and 
tables  that  I  remember  them  yet,  although 
we  made  no  effort  to  commit  them  at  the  time. 

After  spending  an  indeterminate  amount  of 
time  amusing  ourselves  in  this  way  we  finally 
invented  a  checker-board  by  marking  squares 
on  a  flour  sack  with  a  pencil  and  cutting  round 
and  square  checkers  out  of  wood.  Previous  to 
this  time  few  of  the  members  of  the  party, 
including  myself,  knew  anything  about  the  game, 
but  within  a  short  time  we  all  became  very  good 
players.    We  laid  the  checker-board  down  on  the 

200 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

flat  top  of  a  large  spruce  log  that  we  had  sawed 
in  two  and  stood  on  end  for  a  table  and  spent 
days  and  days  figuring  new  combinations  and 
moves.  I  became  so  expert  at  the  game  at  this 
time  that  I  have  beaten  many  good  players  since 
my   return. 

Our  physical  suffering,  of  course,  resulted  for 
the  most  part  from  the  intense  cold.  In  the 
middle  of  .the  winter  when  it  became  very  cold 
the  air  was  usually  very  still  and  there  were  few 
storms.  Then  it  seemed  the  cold  was  the  most 
subtle  and  it  was  almost  impossible  to  keep 
warm  no  matter  how  big  a  fire  we  had. 

At  this  time  two  of  us  would  get  into  one 
sleeping  bag  and  lay  as  close  as  possible  for 
comfort.  My  St.  Bernard  dog  I  used  as  a 
pillow  when  he  lay  at  the  head  of  my  bunk  and  as 
a  foot  warmer  when  he  lay  at  the  foot.  The  snow 
outside  had  fallen  to  a  depth  of  six  to  eight  feet 
and  a  big  drift  had  collected  on  the  north  side  of 
our  cabin,  but  wind  kept  the  roof  clear  of  snow. 
From  our  door  we  had  to  go  to  the  surface  of  the 
snow,  which  was  almost  on  a  level  with  the 
eaves  of  the  roof. 

We  also  suffered  much  from  diseases  incident 
to  close  confinement  and  improper  food.  During 
the  early  and  middle  part  of  the  winter  the  men 

201 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

were  very  inactive.  Personally,  I  was  thankful 
for  the  desire  I  have  always  had  for  strenuous 
exercise;  many  times  I  would  try  to  get  the  rest 
of  the  fellows  to  get  up  and  go  through  a  set  of 
exercises  with  me. 

Sometimes  they  were  so  lazy  that  they  would 
not  move  and  upon  another  occasion  as  many  as 
five  would  get  up  and  take  an  active  part.  In 
spite  of  my  efforts  our  condition  became  terrible. 
Some  of  the  men  became  sore  and  rheumatism 
was  starting  among  them  as  a  result  of  lying 
down  so  much,  yet  they  could  not  be  induced  to 
move.  Rather  than  take  the  trouble  to  cook 
their  food  they  often  ate  their  meat  raw. 

During  the  winter  our  supply  of  salt  became 
exhausted  and  for  a  time  we  did  not  think  we 
would  be  able  to  live  without  it.  Some  of  the 
men  who  thought  they  could  not  live  without  it 
nearly  starved  themselves.  But  gradually,  how- 
ever, as  the  pangs  of  hunger  increased,  we  began 
to  eat  our  food  without  salt,  and  it  was  not  long 
until  we  did  not  miss  it  at  all. 

We  soon  began  to  have  serious  trouble  with 
our  teeth,  however,  and  some  of  the  men  were 
driven  desperate  with  pain.  Several  times  the 
men  would  pull  an  aching  tooth  with  a  piece  of 
string  or  wire,  as  this  was  the  only  way  to  obtain 

202 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

relief.  Just  what  the  effect  the  lack  of  salt  had 
upon  us  at  that  time  I  do  not  know,  but  since 
returning  I  have  always  had  an  almost  insatiable 
craving  for  salt. 

In  spite  of  all  our  hardships  and  our  utter 
disregard  for  one  another,  we  still  felt  an  interest 
in  the  three  members  of  our  party  who  left  our 
camp  early  in  the  winter.  We  often  talked  about 
them  and  speculated  upon  their  possible  fate. 
I  do  not  think  that  this  was  the  result  of  any 
brotherly  feeling  for  them,  but  simply  because 
it  was  a  subject  for  earnest  conversation. 

Before  leaving  for  Alaska  I  had  read  quite  a 
little  about  snow-blindness,  but  neither  before  or 
since  have  I  ever  heard  the  name  of  a  disease 
similar  in  its  results,  that  attacked  us  during  the 
latter  part  of  that  terrible  winter,  which  we  had 
begun  to  think  would  never  end.  Our  eyes  got 
sore  and  pained  us  greatly  from  looking  at  the 
flickering  flames  in  the  fire-place  which  was  kept 
burning  continuously  for  seven  months.  At 
times  our  eyes  gave  us  as  much  pain  as  they  did 
when  we  were  on  the  glacier,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible for  us  to  judge  distances  correctly.  Many 
times  we  burned  our  hands  putting  wood  on  the 
fire  because  our  eyes  caused  us  to  see  the  fire 
farther  away  than  it  really  was. 

203 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

I  have  always  been  inclined  to  believe  that  it 
was  the  uncertainty  rather  than  the  brightness  of 
the  firelight  which  gave  us  trouble.  While  it 
seemed  to  be  one  continuous  night  outside, 
there  were  times  when  it  was  lighter  than  others, 
and  although  the  snow  made  it  possible  to  see 
at  all  times,  the  fire  was  the  brightest  light  we 
had. 

As  we  began  to  become  accustomed  to  the 
great  Alaskan  night,  we  found  that  except  when 
there  was  a  storm  raging,  it  was  often  possible 
to  trace  the  passing  of  a  day  in  a  general  way  by 
means  of  the  changes  in  the  light  and  the  climatic 
conditions.  It  seemed  that  usually  every  twenty- 
four  hours  there  was  a  dead  cold  darkness  which 
we  supposed  was  midnight.  Then  the  atmos- 
phere would  grow  perceptibly  brighter  and  for  a 
time  it  would  be  fairly  light.  This  condition 
became  more  pronounced  as  spring  advanced, 
but  at  no  time  were  the  days  well  enough  defined 
for  us  to  have  marked  them  off  on  a  calender 
had  we  had  any. 

When  we  were  cutting  wood  in  the  fall  for  our 
winter  supply  we  thought  we  had  sufficient  to 
last  us  for  two  years,  but  burning  it  as  we  did 
continusously  day  and  night,  soon  depleted  the 
supply  and  some  time  after  the  middle  of  the 

204 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

winter  we  found  ourselves  without  fuel.  There 
was  no  alternative  but  to  go  out  into  that 
frigid  darkness  and  cut  it.  This  proved  to  be  a 
terrible  hardship.  Most  of  the  men  were  just 
now  physically  unable  for  the  work.  Having 
done  nothing  but  lay  around  for  about  four 
months;  their  muscles  were  soft  and  some  of 
them  seemed  to  be  almost  helpless.  The  woods 
were  so  thick  that  many  dead  trees  still  stood  up 
and  by  .untold  drudgery  and  suffering  from  the 
cold  we  cut  them  off  above  the  snow  and  sledded 
them  back  to  the  cabin  with  the  dogs. 

At  this  point  I  cannot  refrain  from  saying 
something  about  the  dogs  which  were  as  much 
averse  to  working  as  were  the  men.  During  the 
winter  one  of  our  diversions  had  been  teaching 
the  dogs  tricks.  My  big  St.  Bernard  was  the 
only  one  of  them  that  seemed  to  learn  or  under- 
stand, and  he  was  so  intelligent  that  at  times  it 
seemed  to  me  he  knew  and  understood  our 
inmost  feelings  and  desires.  The  wolf  dogs  or 
huskies  seemed  to  be  able  to  learn  nothing  but 
to  be  continually  on  their  guard  and  to  steal 
when  the  opportunity  offered.  They  watched  us 
continually;  when  our  supply  of  wood  became 
exhausted  and  we  started  to  get  out  the  sleds 
they  would  sneak  away  and  try  to  hide  the 
minute  the  first  man  reached  up  to  take  down 

205 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

the  harness.  Still,  when  they  were  hitched  up, 
they  pulled  in  the  harness  with  a  will  and  did 
not  seem  to  have  been  as  much  affected  by  the 
long  idleness  as  were  the  men. 


206 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Streak  of  Light  in   North  at  Last   Heralds  the 

Coming  of  Springtime.     Men  Start  to  Dig 

Shaft   for   Gold    Mine.      Another    Man 

Becomes  III  and   Hopeless  Efforts  Are 

Made  to  Save   Him.     Abundance  of 

Fish    Now  Being  Caught  Changes 

Diet. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

r IE  labored  and  suffered  what  seemed 
an  endless  age.  We  had  been 
looking  eagerly  for  the  coming  of 
spring  long  before  our  wood  pile 
was  exhausted,  and  after  we  had 
been  cutting  our  fuel  from  the  stump 
for  a  long  time.  There  was  yet  no 
sign  of  spring. 
We  descended  into  the  lowest  depths  of  de- 
spair. Months  before  we  thought  we  had  noticed 
conditions  that  presaged  the  immediate  breaking 
up  of  the  winter  and  had  made  ourselves  believe 
that  we  had  almost  seen  the  sun  again.  We 
discussed  the  possibility  of  the  earth  coming  to  a 
standstill  or  the  sun  burning  out.  We  began  to 
lose  faith  in  nature  and  we  almost  resigned 
ourselves  to  the  fate  of  freezing  to  death  in  that 
dreadful,  limitless  and  never-ending  darkness. 

207 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

How  we  ever  managed  to  live  during  this 
period  I  cannot  now  explain.  I  feel  that  our 
despair  had  affected  our  minds,  and  we  were  just 
doing  things  after  a  mechanical  fashion  with  no 
particular  end  in  view.  As  we  continued  to 
make  expeditions  after  wood,  we  became  some- 
what hardened  to  the  work,  and  we  did  not  suffer 
so  much.  At  times,  however,  we  were  so  com- 
pletely exhausted  after  bringing  a  log  to  camp 
that  we  were  compelled  to  leave  it  at  the  door 
and  stagger  in  to  our  bags  for  rest.  We  burned 
everything  about  the  cabin  we  could  spare  in 
order  to  diminish  the  labor  of  getting  fuel,  even 
to  the  bones  of  the  bear  we  had  killed,  which 
made  such  an  offensive  odor  that  we  could 
hardly  endure  it  and  which  it  seemed  never 
subsided. 

To  make  matters  worse  our  wood  stove  began 
to  fall  to  pieces,  being  practically  burned  out, 
and  this  also  was  a  cause  of  alarm  on  our  part. 
George  Evens,  one  of  the  party,  was  a  tinsmith, 
but  he  had  nothing  with  which  to  repair  it. 
The  stove  was  a  sheet-iron  affair  with  a  collap- 
sible pipe  and  had  been  very  serviceable.  In  the 
early  winter  we  built  an  addition  to  our  cabin 
in  front  of  the  door  which  was  supposed  to  be  a 
sort  of  storm-break  or  shed;  we  set  up  the  stove 

208 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

there  and  used  it  as  a  kitchen  where  we  did  all 
of  our  baking  and  cooking. 

Although  we  did  not  notice  it  ourselves,  we 
must  have  been  a  most  ragged,  sorry,  disheart- 
ened looking  lot  of  men  at  this  time.  My  hair 
and  beard  was  at  least  a  foot  long  and  thickly 
matted,  as  was  most  of  the  other  men  of  the 
party,  and  I  suppose  all  men  in  Alaska  were 
equally  as  grizzly. 

Most  of  us  were  convinced  that  the  sun  had 
died  out,  leaving  the  earth  to  its  fate,  and  we 
were  simply  eking  out  a  dreadful  existence 
without  hope.  Again  the  first  laws  of  nature, 
self  preservation,  asserted  itself  in  some  unknown 
manner,  and  kept  us  alive  against  our  wills. 
We  had  lost  all  hope,  yet  we  continued  to  suffer 
and  exist  for  no  reason  that  we  could  satisfac- 
torily explain.  Again  some  Higher  Power  seemed 
to  interfere  and  we  followed  blindly  a  sort  of 
instinct  that  compelled  us  to  worry  on. 

We  had  long  ago  lost  interest  in  looking  up 
into  the  heavens  for  some  sign  of  coming  spring. 
Situated  as  we  were  down  in  the  depths  of  a 
valley  with  towering  mountains  on  all  sides, 
we  had  not  even  seen  the  glories  of  the  Aurora 
Borealis,  which  must  have  been  very  brilliant 
in  the  north.     To  us  the  heavens  looked  just 

209 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

the  same  as  they  did  ages  before  when  the  winter 
began.  We  were  doomed  and  we  knew  it.  There 
was  no  hope.  We  were  simply  awaiting  a  ter- 
rible end.  The  sun  had  gone  out.  The  day  of 
judgment  was  at  hand  and  we  had  been  aban- 
doned by  the  Almighty  on  a  dead  and  latent 
planet  that  had  been  swallowed  up  in  dark  and 
frigid  space. 

In  the  depths  of  our  despair,  when  we  had 
about  resigned  ourselves  to  our  fate,  a  streak  of 
light  appeared  above  the  range  of  hills.  At  first 
we  could  not  believe  our  eyes.  It  disappeared 
before  we  could  convince  ourselves  that  we  had 
seen  anything,  but  after  an  anxious  wait  of 
twenty-four  hours  it  reappeared  again,  and  we 
were  convinced  that  the  long  winter  was  about 
to  break. 

The  thought  of  the  approach  of  warm  weather 
put  new  life  into  us,  and  in  one  day  we  were 
transformed  from  a  sorry,  disheartened  gang  of 
adventurers  who  had  given  up  to  die,  to  an 
expectant,  though  motley,  company  of  gold 
seekers.  Although  we  were  near  physical  wrecks 
from  our  long  confinement,  we  could  not  restrain 
our  joy  and  the  days  of  waiting  for  the  ice  and 
snow  to  begin  to  melt  were  even  worse  than  the 
long  winter. 

210 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

The  temperature  began  to  rise  slowly  and 
while  the  mercury  dropped  to  from  six  to  eight 
degrees  below  zero  at  night,  it  rose  to  twenty 
above  in  the  brightest  part  of  the  day. 

We  took  a  renewed  interest  in  life,  and  every- 
day a  hunting  party  was  sent  out.  At  first 
they  had  little  or  no  luck,  but  within  a  few  days 
the  men  began  to  bring  back  some  ptarmigan, 
which  gave  our  diet  variety,  although  the  meat 
was  far  from  being  palatable.  The  hunters  saw 
many  bear  tracks  and  occasionally  they  located 
a  bear,  but  it  was  too  early  in  the  season  to  kill 
them  as  their  meat  was  liable  to  have  a  repulsive 
taste  of  fish.  None  of  them  were  shot,  as  our 
ammunition  was  short  and  we  wanted  every  shot 
to  count  for  food. 

After  waiting  a  long  time  during  which  the 
streak  of  light  we  had  first  seen  in  the  north 
became  a  brilliant  twilight,  the  sun  appeared, 
only  for  a  brief  space  of  time  at  first,  but  as  the 
days  passed  it  continued  to  mount  higher  into 
the  heavens  and  we  were  overjoyed.  I  was  never 
before  so  glad  to  see  Old  Sol.  It  was  like  raising 
the  shades  of  day. 

We  forgot  immediately  our  terrible  sufferings 
during  the  winter  and  thought  only  of  the 
glorious  light.     Our  desire  for  gold  came  back 

211 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

with  our  renewed  life;  although  our  ambitions 
had  lain  dormant  all  winter,  we  were  out  pros- 
pecting just  as  soon  as  the  weather  would  permit. 
Indeed,  so  anxious  were  we  to  get  to  work  that 
we  could  not  wait  until  the  grip  of  the  long 
winter  was  unloosed  by  the  returning  summer, 
but  attempted  to  dig  down  through  the  frozen 
snow.  Although  we  had  no  reason  whatever  to 
suspect  it,  we  were  convinced  that  our  claim 
contained  a  large  amount  of  gold  and  we  would 
all  go  home  rich. 

As  the  weather  became  warmer  it  started  great 
avalanches  to  slide  down  the  sides  of  the  moun- 
tains, producing  thunderous  roars.  Although  we 
had  heard  the  roar  of  the  avalanche  almost 
every  day  after  reaching  Alaska,  this  was  only  a 
suggestion  of  what  was  to  take  place  near  our 
cabin  that  spring.  The  noise  seemed  continuous 
and  was  loudest  in  the  evening  when  the  largest 
number  of  snow-slides  were  in  motion.  The 
noise  from  these  slides  would  echo  and  re-echo 
between  the  mountains  with  a  series  of  rumblings 
that  sounded  like  a  battle  of  giants.  At  first 
this  continuous  noise  disturbed  us,  but  we 
finally  became  accustomed  to  it. 

After  looking  around,  we  finally  selected  a 
place  at  the  side  of  the  mountain  to  dig  a  shaft, 

212 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

which  was  about  one  and  a  half  miles  from  our 
cabin,  and  as  soon  as  it  became  warm  enough  we 
pitched  our  tents  nearby  and  all  of  the  men 
started  to  work.  We  built  a  large  fire  over  the 
spot  we  selected  for  the  shaft.  We  kept  it 
burning  continually  for  two  days,  to  thaw  the 
frost  out  of  the  ground,  which  seemed  to  be 
down  about  fifteen  feet. 

The  spot  cleared  was  about  ten  feet  square, 
and  the  fire  left  a  mass  of  mud  which  required  a 
great  amount  of  labor  to  remove.  Six  to  eight 
men  were  kept  busy  at  work  in  the  shaft,  which 
was  dug  out  in  shelves  so  that  the  hole  became 
smaller  the  deeper  we  went.  When  it  was  so 
small  that  no  more  shelves  could  be  built,  we 
erected  a  crude  windlass  and  drew  the  dirt  up  in 
buckets. 

The  windlass,  which  was  a  ponderous  affair, 
was  made  by  cutting  down  two  trees,  that  forked 
several  feet  above  the  ground.  One  of  these  was 
planted  on  each  side  of  the  shaft  and  a  good  sized 
log  laid  across  the  opening  in  the  ground  between 
the  forks.  This  log  could  be  turned  by  means  of 
a  handle,  and  a  rope  and  two  buckets  were 
attached  to  it  in  such  a  manner  that  when  a 
bucket  full  of  dirt  was  being  brought  up  an 
empty  bucket  was  let  down. 

213 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

The  operation  of  this  windlass  was  most 
laborious,  but  the  men  were  so  sure  that  they 
would  strike  gold  that  they  never  complained, 
but  worked  on  until  they  were  completely 
exhausted  and  then  crawled  into  their  sleeping 
bags  for  rest.  The  ice  continued  to  melt  and 
by  the  time  we  had  reached  a  depth  of  twenty 
feet  the  river  was  open  and  moving,  but  we  were 
unable  to  catch  any  fish.  Our  supplies  were 
beginning  to  get  low,  and  we  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  we  must  replenish  them  from  some 
source. 

As  the  sinking  of  the  shaft  progressed  we 
frequently  took  samples  of  the  dirt  and  washed  it 
searching  carefully  for  color.  After  we  had 
tunneled  in  toward  the  mountain  about  thirty 
feet  we  finally  came  to  the  conclusion  that  we 
had  struck  pay  dirt  and  we  were  surely  overjoyed. 
We  hastily  arranged  our  crib  and  rocker  and 
putting  in  some  mercury  which  we  kept  in  a 
three-inch  iron  pipe,  plugged  at  both  ends  with 
caps,  we  started  to  wash  for  gold.  We  continued 
to  work  the  rocker  for  four  days;  at  the  end  of 
that  time  the  last  few  pails  of  dirt  from  bed  rock 
contained  a  very  small  percentage  of  pin  gold, 
which  was  all  the  gold  we  got  during  our  stay  in 
Alaska.    Copper  was  plentiful  enough  in  small 

214 


WINDLASS 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

nuggets  and  we  gathered  together  a  considerable 
quantity  of  this  metal. 

While  we  were  digging  our  shaft,  Merrill,  our 
mineralogist,  became  very  ill  and  fell  away  to  a 
shadow.  He  had  a  high  fever,  and  although  we 
did  not  know  what  was  the  matter  with  him  at 
the  time,  I  have  thought  since  that  it  must  have 
been  either  typhoid  or  scurvy.  His  hair  came 
out  and  then  all  of  his  teeth  became  loose  and 
finally  fell  out. 

He  insisted  upon  working  as  long  as  he  could 
remain  on  his  feet  and  after  he  got  down  we 
attended  him  as  best  we  could.  We  placed  snow 
on  his  forehead  to  counteract  the  fever  and 
although  he  suffered  greatly,  he  never  com- 
plained. His  illness  somewhat  dampened  our 
gold-seeking  ardor.  Soon  his  presence  seemed  to 
exert  a  gloom  over  us  all  that  we  could  not  shake 
off.  In  our  weakened  condition  we  knew  that 
if  any  of  us  became  ill  we  would  have  no  chance, 
and  the  terror  of  a  lingering  illness,  that  could 
have  no  ending  but  death  in  that  wild  region, 
oppressed  us  as  we  watched  our  poor  comrade 
grow    worse. 

After  we  had  despaired  of  ever  catching  any 
more  fish,  as  the  men  spent  many  hours  trying 
for  them  each  day  without  success,  the  river 

217 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

suddenly  became  filled  with  them  swimming  up 
stream  and  we  had  no  trouble  in  catching  all  we 
needed.  For  a  time  we  ate  nothing  else.  The 
change  in  our  diet  benefitted  us  considerably  and 
for  the  first  time  in  several  weeks  we  ate  all  we 
wanted.  We  had  completely  lost  all  record  of 
time  and  we  had  no  idea  what  month  of  the 
year  it  was.  We  had  come  to  judge  time  by 
seasons  rather  than  by  days  and  we  knew  that 
we  were  in  the  beginning  of  the  Alaskan  summer 
season. 


218 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Three  More  Men  Who  Go  Out  Prospecting  Are 
Lost.     Dog  Leads  Rescue    Party  to   Their 
Tent.    Completely  Disheartened,  Remain- 
ing  Men  Suddenly   Think   of    Home. 
Start  Is  Made  for  Home  in  Dead  of 
the  Great  Alaskan  Winter.    Leave 
Equipment  At  Cabin. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

URING  our  long  confinement  in  the 
cabin  a  great  range  of  mountains 
just  south  of  us  that  stood  out  stark 
and  white  against  the  sky  seemed 
to  be  beckoning  to  us  as  we  waited 
the  long  winter  through.  Somehow 
we  came  to  believe  that  there  was 
gold  at  the  base  of  those  mountains 
and  long  before  the  sun  made  its  appearance, 
we  had  decided  to  accept  the  challenge. 

After  starting  work  on  our.  shaft,  we  sent  out 
an  exploring  party,  consisting  of  Davis,  our 
engineer,  John  Horman  and  Edward  Norris, 
who  took  with  them  three  weeks'  provisions. 
I  was  urged  to  accompany  them  and  at  the  last 
moment  decided  to  remain  at  our  permanent 
camp,  as  I  had  become  very  proficient  as  a  cook 

219 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

and  the  men  thought  my  services  were  more 
needed  at  camp. 

Two  weeks  passed  during  which  time  we  heard 
nothing  from  our  friends  and  we  began  to  become 
alarmed.  We  waited  still  another  week;  when 
they  did  not  return,  four  of  the  strongest  mem- 
bers of  our  party,  myself  included,  started  out 
with  a  one  week's  supply  of  food  to  look  for  them. 
We  took  my  faithful  dog,  Kodiak,  and  six  others 
and  they  seemed  to  realize  that  we  were  looking 
for  our  companions.  My  faithful  dog  would 
sniff  the  air  and  seemed  to  be  continually  anxious 
to  pick  a  trail  on  the  ground  or  in  the  snow. 

The  mosquitoes  again  appeared  in  the  ravine 
we  were  in,  and  not  being  prepared  for  them, 
we  were  greatly  bothered,  but  we  trudged  on 
in  the  direction  we  knew  the  exploring  party 
had  taken.  After  traveling  for  two  days  over  a 
rough  country,  covering  about  twenty-five  miles, 
Kodiak  started  to  whine  and  run  ahead;  we 
followed  as  best  we  could,  thinking  that  perhaps 
he  scented  a  bear  or  some  other  animal;  he  led 
us  about  two  miles  and  suddenly  we  came  upon 
our  comrades'  tent  which  did  not  look  as  if  it 
had  been  occupied  for  several  days.  We  felt 
that  at  last  we  had  come  upon  them,  and  we 
decided  to  rest  there  for  a  while  and  await  their 
return. 


f  ^ 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

We  slept  in  the  tent  that  night  and  the  next 
morning  we  began  to  feel  that  everything  was 
not  right  and  that  probably  something  had 
happened  to  the  party.  We  fired  our  guns  and 
built  a  large  fire  and  smothered  it  so  that  dense 
clouds  of  smoke  rose  high  in  the  air.  With  the 
great  white  snow-capped  mountains  for  a  back- 
ground and  the  rare  atmosphere,  we  thought 
that  the  smoke  could  be  seen  as  far  as  our  per- 
manent camp,  but  there  was  no  sign  of  them 
anywhere. 

We  would  have  been  at  a  total  loss  to  know 
what  to  do  or  how  to  proceed  if  it  had  not  been 
for  my  dog  Kodiak.  He  had  become  so  familiar 
with  the  men  during  the  long  winter  that  he 
seemed  to  know  who  we  were  hunting  for  and 
several  times  he  ran  away  in  one  direction  so 
that  at  last  we  decided  the  best  plan  was  to 
follow  him. 

After  following  the  dog  for  a  mile  along  the 
side  of  the  mountain  we  came  to  a  great  gulch 
that  had  been  freshly  torn  out  of  the  side  of  the 
mountain  by  an  avalanche.  It  was  at  least  one 
hundred  feet  wide  and  ended  below  in  a  great 
canyon  through  which  roared  a  swift  flowing 
river.  The  picture  that  greeted  our  gaze  as  we 
stood  there  on  the  edge  of  that  great  fissure  was 

223 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

indeed  terrible;  there  and  then  we  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  our  comrades  had  been  caught 
in  that  great  avalanche  and  swept  down  to  a 
horrible  death. 

The  trail  of  the  avalanche  showed  that  it  came 
down  the  mountain  side  in  a  zig-zag  track, 
carrying  everything  before  it.  Great  rocks  and 
trees  were  ground  under  it  and  dragged  along 
underneath,  tearing  great  fissures  in  the  side  of 
the  mountain.  We  were  even  then  in  a  danger- 
ous place  as  several  small  slides  went  down  close 
by  where  we  stood. 

Far  below  we  could  see  where  the  entire  slide 
tumbled  over  the  edge  of  that  gigantic  canyon 
and  disappeared.  We  were  afraid  to  venture 
near  the  edge  of  the  canyon  whose  walls  of  solid 
rock  seemed  to  drop  abruptly  for  hundreds  of 
feet  and  which  seemed  to  be  at  least  a  mile  wide. 
Far  up  the  canyon  we  could  see  the  roaring  river 
which  the  canyon  walls  cut  off  from  our  view  as 
it  approached.  As  we  stood  and  looked  at  that 
overwhelming  picture  we  felt  instinctively  that 
it  was  responsible  for  the  death  of  our  comrades, 
and  if  they  had  not  been  swept  away  in  the 
avalanche  they  must  have  crossed  its  path 
before  it  swept  down  and  then  found  themselves 
unable  to  get  back.  None  of  them  ever  returned 
to  tell  the  story. 

224 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

There  was  nothing  left  for  us  to  do  but  to  go 
back  to  camp,  and  we  began  to  talk  over  our 
misfortunes,  and  as  the  death  of  our  comrades  cast 
its  gloom  over  us,  we  gradually  became  to  realize 
our  plight.  Until  this  time  our  desire  for  gold 
had  almost  continually  been  our  ruling  passion, 
but  now  fear  began  to  take  its  place  and  thoughts 
of  home  and  the  uncompromising  possibility 
that  we  might  never  get  there,  struck  terror  to 
our  very- souls. 

The  fact  that  we  were  in  all  probability  hope- 
lessly lost,  many  miles  from  civilization, 
impressed  itself  upon  us.  For  the  first  time  since 
we  left  New  York  City  we  were  thoroughly 
frightened.  Life  even  with  its  terrible  hardships 
had  never  seemed  so  sweet,  and  that  we  had 
been  so  foolish  as  to  imperil  it  to  seek  gold  now 
appeared  to  be  unthinkable.  GOLD!  We 
detested  it;  we  hated  it  and  from  that  day  on 
we  did  not  spend  a  minute  looking  for  it.  Our 
ambition  was  demoralized.  Our  single  and  only 
thought  was  to  save  ourselves  and  try  to  get 
out  of  the  country. 

I  am  firmly  convinced  that  if  we  had  acci- 
dentally struck  the  richest  gold  mine  in  the  world 
we  would  have  left  it  untouched.  What  was 
gold  to  us  now?   Gold  was  simply  a  yellow  metal. 

225 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

We  could  not  eat  it,  we  could  not  load  our  guns 
with  it.  It  would  not  clothe  us.  It  would  not 
take  us  back  to  civilization.  It  would  not  keep 
us  alive,  and  life  was  all  we  cared  for  now. 

With  our  food  supply  almost  gone,  our  clothes 
completely  worn  t  out  and  our  ammunition 
exhausted,  we  descended  into  the  lowest  depths 
of  despair  and  dismally  discussed  the  possibility 
of  getting  back  to  Yakutat  or  to  the  coast  some- 
where where  we  could  get  a  boat  for  home.  We 
wanted  to  start  immediately,  but  we  found  that 
we  would  be  unable  to  go  until  snow  came  again, 
so  we  could  use  our  sleds  and  the  condition  of 
Mr.  Merrill,  who  was  still  very  ill,  made  it  imper- 
ative that  we  remain  and  take  care  of  him.  The 
poor  fellow  lay  there  just  rolling  and  tossing  with 
a  continual  high  fever  just  waiting  for  the  end 
to   come. 

As  the  frost  began  to  come  out  of  the  ground, 
our  shaft  filled  with  water  and  made  working  it 
impossible,  but  we  did  not  give  it  a  second 
thought.  We  moved  back  to  our  cabin  again 
and  began  to  lay  plans  for  a  perilous  dash  to  the 
coast  as  soon  as  there  was  plenty  of  snow  in  the 
valley  and  travel  was  possible.  This  we  real- 
ized would  not  be  more  than  six  weeks  or  two 
months.    Some  of  the  men  wanted  to  go  back 

226 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

the  way  we  came  into  the  interior  over  the 
glacier,  while  others  declared  they  would  rather 
die  than  take  that  route. 

All  the  records  of  our  trip  inbound  were  lost 
with  Davis,  our  engineer,  who  had  made  a  map 
of  the  glacier  and  our  trip  to  the  present  camp. 
We  decided  to  follow  the  river,  as  did  the  other 
three  of  our  party  last  winter  when  it  froze,  not 
knowing  where  it  would  take  us.  In  the  mean- 
time there- was  nothing  for  us  to  do  but  wait,  and 
we  employed  our  time  catching  plenty  of  fish 
and  replenishing  our  food  supply.  Every  man's 
rations  were  cut  down  to  almost  nothing,  and 
we  did  not  allow  ourselves  all  the  fish  we  wanted 
in  order  thereby  to  get  together  a  good  supply 
for  our  journey. 

We  killed  six  of  our  dogs  in  order  to  save  our 
food  and  by  cooking  them,  fed  them  to  the 
remaining  dogs  to  fatten  them;  we  also 
attempted  to  cure  the  fish  we  caught  by  smoking 
them.  We  secured  a  piece  of  wire  by  taking 
apart  the  old  stove  that  had  burned  out  the 
winter  before,  and  smoked  the  fish  by  running 
the  wire  through  their  gills  and  suspending 
them  over  the  fire. 

For  several  weeks  we  did  nothing  but  catch 
and  smoke  fish.     During  all  this  time  Merrill 

229 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

had  been  very  ill  and  we  wondered  what  would 
become  of  him.  We  realized  that  he  could  not 
go  with  us  and  if  we  remained  we  would  surely 
all  perish.  At  last  he  grew  worse  and  died 
without  a  murmur  after  a  heroic  struggle.  We 
took  his  outer  garments  and  moccasins  and 
buried  him  as  best  we  could  about  fifty  feet 
from  our  cabin,  putting  the  remains  of  the  stove 
with  some  stones  on  his  grave  as  a  mark.  There 
were  now  but  eight  of  the  original  party  of 
eighteen  left,  and  we  had  begun  to  feel  that 
none  of  us  would  ever  survive  to  tell  the  story. 

When  I  thought  how  near  I  had  come  to  going 
with  the  exploring  party  and  what  a  narrow 
escape  I  had,  the  disaster  seemed  to  weigh  more 
heavily  upon  me  than  upon  any  of  the  other 
survivors.  I  brooded  over  it  for  weeks;  at 
times  I  even  wished  that  I  had  perished  with 
them.  I  did  not  know  then  as  I  know  now  that 
the  death  of  those  three  men  was  the  sacrifice 
that  was  to  save  my  life,  or  I  might  have  been 
more  miserable  still,  if  that  were  possible.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  clothing  that  was  left  us  by 
Davis,  Horman,  Norris  and  Merrill,  everyone 
of  us  would  have  perished  with  the  cold  before 
we  had  traveled  many  miles  from  the  camp. 

By  the  end  of  that  second  summer  all  of  our 
clothing  was  completely  worn  out.    My  heavy 

230 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

woolen  socks,  which  were  prevented  from  falling 
away  from  my  legs  by  the  mucklocks,  were 
worn  until  there  was  not  a  semblance  of  a  stock- 
ing left.  It  was  not  even  possible  to  recognize 
a  weave  in  them.  There  was  nothing  left  but  a 
dirty  mass  of  wool.  Our  moccasins  were  entirely 
gone  and  even  before  we  started  on  our  journey 
we  suffered  terribly  from  the  cold. 

We  divided  the  clothing  that  was  left  behind 
by  dead"  comrades.  We  wrapped  up  our  feet 
in  rags  and  in  this  manner  prevented  them  from 
freezing  and  prepared  for  our  journey.  We 
figured  that  it  must  be  near  the  month  of 
November  or  December  or  about  a  year  and 
ten  months  since  we  left  New  York  City.  We 
had  hardly  brought  along  clothing  enough  to 
last  us  for  a  year,  as  we  had  expected  to  be  back 
in  New  York  long  before  this. 

From  the  time  I  left  for  Alaska  I  had  been 
accustomed  to  carry  my  money,  which  was  in 
gold  and  paper,  in  a  belt  strapped  around  my 
waist;  but  on  getting  to  our  permanent  camp 
after  the  cabin  was  built,  the  belt  was  so  heavy 
and  hard  that  it  cut  into  my  flesh  and  made  a 
continual  sore.  In  order  to  avoid  carrying  it 
around,  I  cut  a  hole  in  a  log  of  the  cabin  just 
above  my  bunk  and  carefully  placed  it  there. 

231 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

There  was  about  seven  hundred  dollars  in  the 
belt  and  as  I  had  no  use  for  it  where  we  were, 
I  forgot  all  about  it  in  time. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  I  had  impressed  upon 
me  most  vividly  that  money,  in  itself,  was 
useless.  In  a  civilized  country  money  represents 
many  things  that  are  worth  while  in  life,  but  in 
Alaska,  where  we  were,  it  represented  nothing. 
We  could  forget  about  it,  because  it  was  simply 
an  incumbrance.  At  this  time  we  forgot  that 
for  which  we  came.  Had  we  succeeded  in  hoard- 
ing an  untold  amount  of  gold  in  our  shack,  it 
would  have  all  been  forgotten.  Gold  is  of  very 
little  value  when  a  man's  life  is  at  stake. 

At  last  the  river  had  frozen  to  a  depth  of  four 
or  more  feet  and  we  made  all  preparations  for 
our  trip.  By  this  time  the  sun  had  disappeared 
and  there  was  only  a  little  twilight  each  day. 
We  delayed  a  little  longer  than  we  intended  by 
attempting  to  get  more  food,  by  fishing  through 
holes  cut  in  the  ice.  We  met  with  very  little 
success,  but  we  persisted,  knowing  that  starva- 
tion was  probably  staring  us  in  the  face. 

By  the  time  we  finally  started,  the  river  was 
frozen  solid.  We  left  behind  everything  but  our 
food,  sleeping  bags,  one  tent  and  a  shovel  or 
two,  and  with  four  dogs  attached  to  each  sled, 

232 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

made  our  way  slowly  down  the  river.  Probably 
to  this  day  our  entire  equipment  of  guns,  etc., 
is  still  there  by  the  Tanana  River  just  as  we  left 
it,  a  heart-breaking  exhibit  of  blasted  hopes 
and  labor  lost. 


233 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Rough  Traveling  Down   the   River.     Footprints 

Discovered   in   the  Snow,  Lead   to   Indian 

Village.      Refugees    Pitch    Camp    with 

Natives.    A  White  Man  With  Natives 

Gives  Directions  to  Reach  Coast.  One 

of  Party  Gets  His  Feet  Frost  Bitten. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

E  traveled  down  the  river  at  the 
rate  of  ten  miles  a  day  with  dusk 
continually  hanging  over  us.  The 
surface  of  the  river  was  very  rough 
in  places  which  made  progress  slow, 
and  in  places  great  rocks  protruded 
through  the  ice  and  snow.  We 
suffered  terribly  with  the  cold; 
at  times  we  were  harassed  by  fierce  blizzards, 
which  swept  down  and  made  life  in  the  open 
almost  impossible. 

When  further  progress  became  impossible, 
we  would  pile  up  our  sleds  as  a  wind  break,  and 
throw  our  tent  loosely  over  us,  and  the  men  and 
dogs  would  huddle  together,  in  order  to  prevent 
being  frozen  to  death,  until  the  storm  passed. 
We  employed  every  precaution  at  our  command 
to  prevent  freezing,  and  took  turns  rubbing  and 

237 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

hitting  one  another  in  order  to  keep  the  blood  in 
circulation.  Whenever  one  of  us  became  lazy, 
the  others  would  make  him  exercise  in  order  to 
keep  awake. 

Our  physical  condition  at  this  time  was  prob- 
ably worse  than  at  any  time  so  far.  There 
seemed  to  be  nothing  left  but  our  animal 
natures.  Although  we  were  a  long  time  on  the 
river,  I  remember  very  little  of  the  trip  as  we 
were  just  numb  from  the  cold;  and  for  the  most 
part,  it  appears  to  be  a  blank  space  in  my  life. 
I  remember,  however,  that  we  had  to  get  off  the 
river  course  and  make  a  trail  through  a  close 
canyon,  where  the  going  was  very  rough.  The 
side  walls  arose  very  abruptly  on  either  side  for 
several  hundred  feet;  at  times  they  seemed  to 
close  at  the  top  as  we  could  see  very  little  of  the 
sky. 

On  these  occasions  the  natural  darkness  was 
greatly  augmented  and  sometimes  it  was  impos- 
sible to  see  very  far  ahead.  The  outlook  was 
indeed  awful  and  we  felt  that  we  were  going 
forward  to  a  terrible  and  unknown  doom.  We 
knew  to  turn  back  meant  sure  death;  and  we 
chose  the  unknown  and  worked  our  way  slowly 
and  gloomily  on,  into  that  terrible  gulf. 

After  traveling  along  for  a  few  days  we  again 
came  to  the  river.    We  had  been  on  our  way  now 

238 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

about  three  weeks  and  came  to  a  point  where  the 
river  spread  out  into  a  stream  one-half  mile  wide. 
To  our  surprise  we  came  upon  the  tracks  of 
snow-shoes  and  dogs,  and  we  immediately 
thought  of  our  comrades,  who  had  left  our 
camp  the  winter  before.  We  were  beyond  our- 
selves with  joy. 

The  chance  finding  of  these  tracks  was  another 
link  in  the  chain  of  miraculous  events  that  was 
to  lead  to  our  final  rescue.  Had  we  not  come 
across  these  tracks,  we  would  have  all  probably 
perished  on  account  of  our  insufficient  clothing 
and  food  supply.  We  would  have  continued 
our  journey  up  the  Tanana  River  to  the  Yukon, 
where,  by  only  the  merest  possibility  would  we 
have  been  able  to  reach  a  mining  settlement  at 
that  season  of  the  year. 

We  followed  the  tracks  down  the  river  for 
half  a  mile,  when  we  left  the  water  course  going 
through  a  large  canyon;  after  two  hours'  hard 
traveling,  as  the  trail  was  rough  and  irregular 
and  the  sleds  would  often  upset,  we  finally  came 
to  a  crude  Indian  settlement.  We  expected  to 
surely  find  our  three  comrades.  As  we 
approached,  their  dogs  began  growling  and 
barking  when  suddenly  from  out  of  the  igloos 
came  several  natives  clothed  in  reindeer  skin. 

239 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

They  seemed  to  be  a  very  low  order  of  human 
being. 

They  had  deserted  their  shacks  and  were 
living  in  their  igloos  or  ice-constructed  houses 
and  were  greatly  surprised  to  see  us.  They 
crowded  around  us  and  stared,  and  one  of  their 
number  who  could  speak  English  asked  us  who 
we  were  and  where  we  came  from.  We  could 
see  immediately  that  they  were  far  below  the 
Yakutat  natives  in  intelligence.  We  at  once 
inquired  about  our  friends  but  they  shook  their 
heads.  Evidently  if  they  had  traveled  this  way 
they  had  missed  this  Indian  settlement  and  had 
gone  on  up  the  Tanana  River,  toward  the  Yukon 
River,  to  perish  in  some  unknown  manner. 

We  pitched  our  tents  alongside  the  igloos 
and  prepared  to  stay  with  the  Indians  for  a  few 
days.  We  soon  learned  that  the  man  who  spoke 
to  us  was  not  an  Indian,  but  a  Swede  who  had 
been  living  with  the  natives  for  the  past  ten 
years,  and  had  a  squaw  for  a  wife  with  half- 
breed  children.  He  was  a  man  of  few  words  like 
the  natives  with  whom  he  lived,  but  we  finally 
managed  to  learn  that  his  name  was  Jenson  and 
that  he  had  once  lived  in  New  London,  Conn. 
How  he  ever  happened  to  get  to  be  connected 
with  that  tribe  of  uncivilized  natives,  in  the 

240 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

almost  inaccessible  interior  of  Alaska,  we  did 
not  know.  He  seemed  to  have  great  influence 
over  the  natives  and  if  we  had  not  met  him  it 
is  not  at  all  likely  that  we  would  have  been 
treated  as  well  as  we  were.  The  Alaskan  native 
is  a  man  who  attends  strictly  to  his  own  affairs 
and  apparently  he  extends  very  little  sympathy 
to  an  unfortunate  brother. 

The  Indians  we  met  in  the  interior  belonged 
to  some  "small  tribe  and  in  appearance  were 
much  like  the  Indians  we  had  met  on  the  coast. 
Men  and  women  were  dressed  alike  and  as  their 
bodies  were  completely  covered,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  small  portion  of  their  faces,  it  was 
impossible  to  tell  them  a  part.  Our  dogs  which 
were  in  a  fairly  good  condition  when  we  started 
from  the  cabin,  were  now  foot-sore  and  com- 
pletely fagged  out.  We  made  moccasins  for  all 
of  the  dogs  out  of  our  worn  out  leather  coats, 
which  proved  a  great  help;  it  saved  us  from 
stopping  so  often  to  pick  the  snow  from  between 
their  toes. 

We  noticed  among  other  things  that  the 
Indians  had  a  peculiar  method  of  preventing 
snow-blindness  that  was  different  from  the 
practice  of  the  coast  Indians.  They  used  a  piece 
of  wood  in  which  was  a  very  small  slit,  not  much 

243 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

wider  than  a  needle  point,  which  was  fastened 
in  front  of  the  eyes.  This  prevented  very  little 
light  from  getting  through  and  while  I  do  not 
think  that  this  plan  was  as  effective  as  our 
colored  glasses  it  was  much  better  than  painting 
the  eyes.  Their  sole  occupation  was  hunting 
and  fishing.  When  the  river  was  open  they 
packed  up  the  Tanana  one  hundred  miles  to  the 
Yukon,  where  they  met  traders  who  came  up 
the  river.  Other  than  this,  we  learned  very 
little  about  the  natives,  because  our  physical 
condition  and  the  partially  demented  state  of 
our  minds  caused  us  to  take  little  or  no  interest 
in  what  was  happening  about  us. 

During  our  trip  down  the  river,  George  Evans, 
one  of  our  party,  had  both  feet  frost-bitten  and 
after  we  pitched  our  tent  and  built  a  fire  they 
gave  him  terrible  pain.  As  long  as  he  remained 
outside  where  it  was  cold  he  did  not  suffer,  but 
just  as  soon  as  we  built  a  fire  he  raved.  More 
than  once  we  were  compelled  to  prevent  him 
from  cutting  off  his  toes  with  an  axe.  We 
rubbed  snow  and  ice  on  this  feet  and  did  every- 
thing possible  for  him,  but  it  did  not  relieve  him. 
The  natives  came  in  our  tent  and  looked  at 
Evans;  although  they  knew  that  his  condition 
meant  certain  death,  they  offered  no  sympathy 
nor  suggestions  whatever. 

244 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Our  condition  was  indeed  precarious,  but  we 
did  not  consider  for  a  moment  staying  with  the 
natives  during  the  winter  and  setting  out  again 
in  the  spring.  Mr.  Jenson  attempted  to  tell  us 
of  the  perils  we  would  encounter  if  we  continued 
our  journey,  but  the  state  of  our  minds  was  such 
that  even  if  he  had  told  us  we  would  go  to  certain 
death,  I  do  not  doubt  but  that  we  would  have 
set  out  on  our  journey. 

As  our  clothing  was  completely  worn  out,  we 
attempted  to  buy  some  from  the  natives.  After 
considerable  dickering,  they  finally  provided  each 
of  us  with  a  pair  of  mucklocks  and  a  hair  seal 
coat,  crudely  sewed  together  with  gut,  and 
equipped  with  a  hood  for  the  head  and  large 
mitts,  which  reached  to  the  elbows.  They  also 
gave  us  a  quantity  of  oil  to  use  for  fuel  and  some 
smoked  fish.  They  wanted  flour  in  exchange, 
but  we  had  so  little  left  that  we  could  not  spare 
it.  They  finally  agreed  to  take  gold  in  payment, 
and  then  I  suddenly  discovered,  for  the  first 
time,  that  I  had  left  all  of  my  money  behind  in 
the  cabin  with  the  rest  of  our  equipment, 
probably  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  away. 
Arthur  Wilson  and  Pitman  paid  my  share  of  the 
money,  and  I  did  not  give  my  loss  a  second 
thought. 

245 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Mr.  Jenson  gave  us  our  compass  bearings  and 
directions  to  reach  Orca  on  the  coast;  we  were 
to  go  down  a  stream  from  their  village,  then 
cross  a  glacier  until  we  came  to  Copper  River, 
and  continue  down  to  the  coast.  Before  we 
left  the  settlement  he  invited  us  to  his  igloo, 
where  he  served  a  feed  in  our  honor.  In  the 
center  of  the  igloo  was  a  fire  made  with  a  large 
wick  floating  in  a  pot  containing  a  thick  dirty- 
mess  of  grease.  I  thought  at  the  time  that  this 
pot  had  never  been  cleaned  and  the  odor  that 
arose  from  it  was  stifling.  Our  host  passed 
around  a  board  on  which  was  some  dried  and 
frozen  seal  meat  cut  into  strips  about  one  inch 
square  and  six  inches  long.  The  meat  was 
almost  entirely  fat  with  a  streak  of  lean  through 
it  here  and  there. 

We  did  not  know  what  was  expected  of  us, 
but  as  the  others  each  took  a  strip  of  meat,  we 
did  likewise.  It  was  very  evident  to  me  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  eat  it  in  its  present  con- 
dition, and  again  we  allowed  the  natives  who 
were  sitting  around  in  a  circle  to  take  the 
initiative.  Holding  one  end  of  the  strip  in  the 
pot  of  hot  grease  for  a  few  minutes  until  it  had 
been  thawed  out,  they  then  bit  a  piece  off  and 
devoured  it  with  great  relish,  making  all  kinds 

246 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

of  offensive  and  ill-bred  noises  with  their  lips 
as  they  ate. 

We  attempted  to  do  likewise  but  failed 
miserably.  I  held  one  end  of  my  strip  of  fat  in 
the  grease  for  several  minutes  and  then  bit  a 
chunk  off.  The  taste  was  almost  unbearable, 
but  I  was  so  nearly  famished  that  I  could  easily 
have  endured  the  taste  if  I  had  been  able  to 
chew  it.  It  seemed  that  the  longer  I  chewed, 
the  larger  the  chunk  of  meat  got  and  I  had  to 
give  it  up  as  my  teeth  hurt  so.  My  comrades 
were  equally  unsuccessful  in  their  efforts  to 
partake  of  Mr.  Jenson's  hospitality.  Mr.  Jen- 
son's  native  wife  gave  us  a  mixture  of  small  red 
berries,  and  a  sort  of  lard  and  another  kind  of 
plant  all  mixed  together  and  while  we  ate  it  I 
am  sure  not  one  of  the  men  cared  for  more. 


249 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Glacier  Is  Again  Reached.    One  of  Party  Frozen 

to  Death.    Food  and  Fuel  Exhausted.     The 

Dogs  Are  Killed  and  Eaten.    The  Ocean 

At  Last  Looms   Up  Before  Them.    The 

Men  Are  Exhausted  and  Bewildered. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

FTER  spending  a  week  with  the 
natives,  we  again  packed  our  sleds 
and  resumed  our  journey.  Instead 
of  following  the  Tanana  River, 
which  runs  in  a  generally  north- 
westerly direction,  we  turned  about 
and  took  a  course  almost  due  south. 
My  faithful  dog  Kodiak,  who  was 
much  thinner  than  when  we  left  the  camp,  was 
always  in  the  lead.  As  we  rushed  along,  the 
dogs  would  often  get  into  a  general  fight,  which 
always  meant  a  half  hour's  work  to  untangle 
the  harness;  we  had  to  beat  the  huskies  in  order 
to  stop  these  fights,  which  always  meant  the  crip- 
pling of  one  or  more  dogs. 

We  proceeded  over  a  rough  country  toward  the 
glacier.  I  cannot  help  but  refer  again  to  my  dog, 
who  had  been  more  to  me  than  any  of  my 
comrades.     He  was  always  ready  and  willing, 

251 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

and,  although  reduced  almost  to  a  shadow,  he 
seemed  to  understand  all  my  troubles  and 
extend  his  sympathy.  Often  when  I  would  look 
into  his  bottomless  eyes,  which  betrayed  unusual 
intelligence,  I  could  see  there  an  innocent  appeal 
and  a  solicitude  for  my  welfare  that  made  my 
heart  ache.  He  understood  every  word  I  spoke 
to  him  and  when  a  cross  word  escaped  my  lips 
he  would  drop  his  head  and  allow  his  tail  to 
droop  until  I  spoke  kindly  to  him  again. 

After  several  days  of  rough  traveling,  we 
reached  the  glacier  and  found  that  a  hazardous 
job  of  getting  up  on  it  confronted  us.  The  end 
of  that  vast  ocean  of  ice  was  a  twisted  and 
broken  mass  which  at  first  made  us  despair  of 
ever  being  able  to  climb  over  it.  After  consider- 
able work,  however,  we  finally  managed  to 
break  a  rough  trail  and  get  up  on  the  body  of  the 
glacier.  We  found  that  the  surface  of  the  ice 
was  so  rough  that  we  could  not  use  our  sleds; 
we  were  compelled  to  pack  our  goods  the  first 
two  miles,  which  was  a  cold  and  laborious  job. 
Fortunately  we  had  little  with  us  except  our 
provisions,  which  were  running  short,  or  we 
would  have  perished  from  sheer  exhaustion  and 
cold.  When  we  were  finally  able  to  use  our  sleds 
again,  the  going  was  so  hard  that  each  man  was 
compelled  to  lash  a  rope  to  his  sled  and  put  it 

252 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

over  his  shoulder  to  assist  his  dogs.  With  never 
any  sunshine  and  the  Aurora  Borealis  hidden  by 
the  mountains,  we  toiled  hopelessly  on  through 
the  cold  dreary  night. 

Evans,  one  of  the  men  whose  feet  had  been 
frost-bitten  just  before  we  reached  the  Indian 
village,  continued  to  grow  worse  and  had  his 
feet  frosted  again  soon  after  we  got  on  the  glacier. 
He  did  not  suffer  so  much  now,  but  his  feet 
swelled  to  twice  their  normal  size  and  he  was 
unable  to  walk.  His  condition  was  indeed 
pitiful  and  hopeless,  but  he  did  not  complain. 
We  placed  him  on  his  sled  tucked  in  his  sleeping 
bag  and  had  his  dogs  pull  him  along.  The 
temperature  must  have  been  from  thirty  to  fifty 
degrees  below  zero  and  all  that  we  could  do  for 
him  was  to  rub  his  feet  from  the  outside.  In 
spite  of  all  our  efforts  he  grew  worse;  he  seemed 
to  have  no  feeling  in  his  limbs  at  all  and  lost  all 
interest  in  life  at  the  same  time.  He  just  seemed 
to  fall  into  a  peaceful  sleep  and  before  we  could 
realize  it  he  was  dead. 

We  buried  him  in  the  snow  and  killed  his  dogs 
to  save  food,  then  proceeded  without  so  much  as 
the  shedding  of  a  tear.  Our  physical  condition 
at  this  time  was  such  that  mourning  for  anyone 
was  impossible  and  we  even  envied  him  his 

253 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

peaceful  sleep.  Our  trip  out  over  the  glacier 
was  much  worse  than  our  trip  inbound,  almost 
two  years  before.  The  dogs  we  killed,  belonging 
to  Evans,  we  fed  to  the  other  dogs,  which  greatly 
relieved  them,  making  them  better  able  to 
pull  our  sleds. 

The  ice  was  very  rough  as  we  entered  some  of 
the  narrow  canyons  and  great  mountains  loomed 
up  all  along  the  route.  Although  we  had  a  small 
burden  as  compared  with  what  we  took  into 
Alaska,  we  were  almost  famished  and  bordering 
on  collapse.  With  fierce  storms  blowing  and  the 
temperature  below  zero,  existence  under  any 
circumstances  was  almost  impossible. 

It  is  impossible  to  set  down  in  words  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  hardships  we  endured 
during  our  trip  across  the  ice  and  snow.  When 
we  left  the  Indian  settlement  we  expected  to 
reach  Orca  within  three  weeks,  but  a  month 
passed  and  we  toiled  on  with  the  long  night 
hovering  over  the  ice  that  seemed  to  be  limitless. 
We  were  again  afflicted  with  snow  blindness, 
but  not  as  bad  as  we  were  before,  as  our  colored 
glasses  afforded  great  relief.  We  had  to  use  our 
snow-shoes  continually  and  we  set  up  our  tent 
about  every  other  day  to  do  the  little  cooking 
which  was  necessary.    The  surface  of  the  glacier 

254 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

was  broken  here  and  there  by  great  crevasses 
which  compelled  us  to  make  wide  detours; 
these,  in  connection  with  the  rough  ice  we 
encountered,  greatly  impeded  our  progress. 
We  also  took  greater  precaution  than  before; 
we  connected  the  sleds  with  ropes  in  order  to 
guard  against  any  of  the  remaining  members  of 
the  party  falling  into  a  crevasse  in  the  ice. 

Terrible  blizzards  also  caused  us  great  incon- 
venience and  at  times  we  felt  that  we  must 
perish.  The  snow  was  usually  frozen  very  hard 
and  it  cut  like  sharp  sand.  At  times  we  were 
unable  to  see  more  than  ten  feet  ahead,  and  we 
never  knew  whether  the  snow  was  falling  or  just 
being  blown  about.  It  was  almost  impossible 
to  cook  anything,  although  we  had  brought 
along  a  supply  of  wood  for  fuel  as  well  as  some 
oil  tied  up  in  skins,  which  we  had  procured  from 
the  natives.  The  wood  would  burn  lustily  when 
placed  in  the  remains  of  one  of  our  stoves  which 
we  had  brought  along,  and  a  wick  placed  in  the 
oil  would  blaze  up  when  a  match  was  applied  to 
it,  but  two  inches  from  the  blaze,  water  would 
freeze  because  of  the  cold  all  around. 

With  our  compass  always  before  us,  we  toiled 
on,  hoping  against  hope  to  reach  the  Copper 
River  every  hour.     We  would  push  on  until 

257 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

completely  exhausted  or  a  fierce  blizzard  made 
further  progress  impossible;  then,  piling  up  our 
sleds  as  a  wind-break,  we  would  crawl  into  our 
sleeping  bags,  throw  our  tent  loosely  over  us 
and  lie  down  with  our  dogs  from  sheer  exhaustion. 

Our  dogs  suffered  terribly  as  it  was  very 
seldom  that  dogs  were  required  to  make  a  trip 
over  a  glacier,  even  during  the  summer  time. 
At  this  season  of  the  year,  such  a  trip  was  even 
worse  for  the  dogs  than  for  the  men.  The 
moccasins  we  made  for  the  dogs  were  entirely 
worn  out,  and  the  snow  worked  up  between 
their  toes  and  froze.  Every  few  hours  we  were 
compelled  to  stop  and  dig  the  ice  out  of  the  dogs' 
feet  with  a  knife.  The  ice  often  caused  them 
great  pain  by  spreading  their  toes,  and  unless  it 
was  removed  it  made  travel  impossible  for  them; 
the  bright  red  spots  on  the  snow  told  the  tale  of 
their  condition  and  we  would  relieve  them  as 
best  we  could. 

We  had  been  on  the  glacier  probably  six  weeks 
when  our  flour  supply  became  exhausted.  The 
wood  we  had  brought  along  for  cooking  was  also 
consumed  and  all  we  had  left  was  a  few  smoked 
fish  and  some  beans.  For  the  first  time  since  I 
started  out,  I  lost  heart  completely  and  every 
vestige  of  hope  that  I  had  entertained  before, 

258 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

slowly  ebbed  away.  When  I  thought  that  we 
had  expected  to  reach  Orca  within  three  weeks 
and  we  had  been  on  our  journey  a  month  and  a 
half,  I  became  convinced  that  there  was  abso- 
lutely no  hope  for  us,  and  I  slowly  became 
reconciled  to  my  fate.  This  is  a  feeling  that  no 
one  who  has  never  experienced  it,  can  appreciate. 
Man,  it  seems,  has  two  distinct  minds  or  sets  of 
feelings.  One  a  conscious  sense  that  gives  up 
when  all  hope  is  gone,  and  gains  peace  by  recon- 
ciling itself  to  its  fate;  the  other  an  unconscious 
sense,  which  never  gives  up.  We  had  con- 
sciously given  ourselves  up  as  lost,  yet  uncon- 
sciously and  hopelessly  plodded  on  with  no 
end  whatever  in  view. 

Weak  from  hunger  and  with  only  four  dogs 
left,  which  were  equally  as  weak  and  hungry, 
we  left  everything  behind,  extra  sleeping  bags, 
our  rusty  stove,  a  shovel,  and  a  number  of  other 
articles — and  made  our  last  desperate  stand 
against  fate  and  the  elements.  Our  strength 
was  so  far  gone  from  want  of  food  that  we  found 
further  progress  was  impossible  without  nour- 
ishment, and  in  our  last  extremity  we  killed 
one  of  the  dogs. 

Repulsive  as  dog  meat  would  be  to  me  now, 
I  can  only  remember  that  the  tough  sinews  of 

259 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

that  famished  animal  tasted  good  and  we  ate 
the  meat  like  savage  animals,  not  being  able  to 
wait  until  it  was  properly  cooked.  The  dog 
meat  revived  us  to  a  considerable  extent,  but 
it  was  with  great  effort  that  we  took  our  places 
alongside  of  the  three  remaining  dogs  and  helped 
tug  the  sleds  along.  We  gave  the  poor  famished 
dogs  the  bones  of  their  mate  with  a  little  of  the 
cooked  meat;  we  realized  that  to  an  extent  we 
had  to  rely  upon  the  dogs  if  we  ever  intended  to 
reach  anywhere. 

Soon  we  became  aware  of  a  change  in  con- 
ditions and  we  found  that  we  were  going  down  a 
long  incline.  We  had  at  last  reached  the  summit 
of  the  glacier;  yet  for  some  unaccountable 
reason  this  fact  did  not  elate  us — no  ray  of  hope 
shone  on  our  dreary  way.  We  still  plodded  on 
hopelessly  to  our  doom  which  we  were  sure 
awaited  us.  Our  meat  supply  again  became  low 
and  we  were  compelled  to  kill  another  dog, 
leaving  my  dog  Kodiak  and  a  large  husky. 

By  this  time,  spring  was  beginning  to  come 
slowly  again  and  we  could  see  the  brightness  of 
the  returning  sun  in  the  sky.  It  would  only 
appear  for  a  short  time  and  disappear,  yet  it 
gave  us  no  hope.  Time  meant  nothing  to  us 
now.     We  never  expected  to  see  the  sun  again 

260 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

and  its  returning  brightness  only  annoyed  us. 
Our  course  now  was  always  down  grade,  which 
made  travel  comparatively  easy,  and  had  not 
this  condition  favored  us  we  should  have 
perished.  This  was  simply  another  of  the  chain 
of  circumstances — that  now  seem  almost  provi- 
dential— that  was  to  save  us. 

As  we  toiled  on  in  the  dim  twilight  several 
days  after,  our  last  stand,  we  noticed  far  ahead  of 
us  a  change  in  the  color  of  the  landscape  near  the 
horizon — a  thin  streak  of  blue.  Our  first  thought 
was  that  it  was  the  sea;  but  when  we  remembered 
that  Mr.  Jenson  had  told  us  that  we  would  have 
to  travel  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  down  the 
Copper  River  after  crossing  the  glacier,  we  felt 
that  this  could  not  be  so.  As  we  traveled  on,  the 
streak  of  blue  undoubtedly  became  an  expanse  of 
water  and,  although  we  were  still  undecided  as 
to  what  it  was,  it  engendered  in  us  a  spark  of 
hope  as  water  always  will.  Before  many  hours 
we  came  near  enough  to  identify  the  water 
before  us  as  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  by  this  time  we  were  almost  in  a 
delirious  state  of  mind,  we  were  somewhat 
bewildered.  The  next  day  after  a  sleepless 
night  we  continued  toward  our  gleam  of  hope 
and  now  fully  realized  that  before  us  was  the 
Pacific    Ocean! 

261 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Men  Eat  Last  Dog  and  Some  Dead  Fish  Found  On 
Beach    and   Lapse    Into     Unconsciousness. 
Four  Found  Alive  by  the   U.  S.  Revenue 
Cutter.      Taken     to     Sitka     Hospital, 
Where  They  Recovered  in  Two  Weeks 
and  Return   Home.    False   News- 
paper Reports  of  Success. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

LTHOUGH  we  had  provided  our- 
selves with  the  best  maps  available 
before  starting  on  our  expedition, 
we  always  found  them  very  unre- 
liable, and  we  were  seldom  able  to 
identify  any  of  the  rivers  or  glaciers 
we  crossed,  except  the  Malaspina 
Glacier.  After  leaving  the  Indian 
settlement  in  the  interior  we  had  followed  the 
instructions  of  Mr.  Jenson  to  the  best  of  our 
ability,  but  we  must  have  gone  out  of  our 
course.  My  impression  is  that  we  bore  to  the 
east  and  instead  of  crossing  an  arm  of  the 
glacier,  as  Mr.  Jenson  had  directed,  we  crossed  it 
lengthwise  and  followed  its  course  all  the  way  to 
the  sea.  This  course  was  probably  shorter  than 
the  one  laid  out  for  us  by  Jenson,  but  the  hard- 

263 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

ships  of  traveling  over  the  ice  were  infinitely- 
greater  than  traveling  down  the  river.  Besides 
the  shorter  route  over  the  ice  led  us  nowhere, 
while  the  route  down  the  Copper  River  would 
have  taken  us  to  Orca,  an  Indian  settlement, 
where  also  were  a  number  of  miners. 

When  we  finally  reached  the  break-off  of  the 
glacier  we  found  that  it  ended  abruptly  in  the 
sea;  what  little  hope  the  sight  of  water  had  given 
us  was  again  blasted.  For  at  least  six  hours  we 
toiled,  pulling  our  sleds  along  the  edge  of  the  ice 
in  a  northwesterly  direction,  hoping  to  come 
to  some  place  where  we  could  get  down  to  the 
beach.  At  last  we  saw  a  range  of  hills  ahead 
which  seemed  to  confine  the  glacier. 

After  considerable  work  we  managed  to  get 
off  the  glacier  on  to  one  of  the  small  hills  and 
make  our  way  down  its  side  to  a  small  strip  of 
the  beach,  which  was  partially  covered  with 
huge  masses  of  ice,  between  which  there  was  the 
open  sand.  It  was  only  with  a  superhuman 
effort  that  we  ever  reached  the  sand,  as  the  ice 
was  so  thickly  massed  near  the  beach  that  we 
could  not  find  a  passage  and  we  had  to  pack 
very  carefully  over  them.  The  tides  rise  very 
high  at  that  point.  From  the  edge  of  the  solid 
ice  on  the  shore,  to  the  edge  of  the  water  at  low 
tide,  was  two  hundred  feet  or  more  in  places. 

264 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Our  condition,  both  physical  and  mental  at 
this  time,  cannot  well  be  described.  As  I  look 
back  now,  this  portion  of  my  life  seems  clouded 
in  an  almost  impenetrable  maze.  I  had  no 
definite  idea  of  the  passing  of  time.  The  time 
we  made  our  last  desperate  stand  until  we 
reached  the  sea  was  just  as  long  as  it  required 
seven  half  starved  men  to  eat  two  famished  dogs. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  at  this  time  we  were  all 
completely  demented.  It  was  instinct,  not 
reason,  that  kept  us  alive. 

After  reaching  the  beach  we  made  a  fire  of 
one  of  our  sleds  and  killed  another  dog  which 
was  starved  most  to  skin  and  bone,  but  very 
faithful  to  the  last.  In  making  our  last  stand  at 
the  summit  of  the  glacier,  we,  in  desperation, 
left  behind  everything  we  absolutely  did  not 
need;  we  now  had  no  cooking  utensils  whatever, 
but  managed  to  cook  the  dog  meat  by  running  a 
chunk  through  with  one  of  the  metal  runners  of 
a  sled  we  burned,  holding  it  over  the  fire.  We 
also  found  some  dead  fish  along  the  beach  which 
we  cooked  and  ate.  The  fish  were  frozen  hard, 
but  when  we  held  them  to  the  fire  and  they 
thawed  out,  we  found  that  they  were  putrid 
and  emitted  a  horrible  odor.  Still  we  ate  them 
and  thought  that  they  were  good. 

265 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

Gathering  a  large  quantity  of  driftwood  along 
the  beach  we  made  another  large  fire  on  a  knoll 
overlooking  the  sea,  which  threw  up  great  clouds 
of  black  smoke;  we  hoped  it  would  attract  some 
vessel  at  sea.  For  days  we  looked  imploringly 
out  over  that  cold,  blue,  ice-spotted  sea  and  felt 
that  to  further  resist  the  inevitable  was  useless. 
The  sea  had  no  sympathy;  the  thought  that  we 
lived  through  all  our  struggles  and  then  to  have 
reached  the  ocean  only  to  die,  caused  our  very 
souls  to  cry  out. 

We  searched  for  miles  along  the  beach  and 
found  a  few  more  rotten  fish,  which  kept  us 
alive  a  few  days  more,  and  then  at  last  my 
faithful  dog  Kodiak  had  to  be  killed.  Never 
have  I  experienced  so  terrible  a  moment  as  when 
the  rest  of  the  men  led  that  companion  of  my 
sufferings  and  tribulations  away  to  be  killed. 
He  gave  me  one  last  appealing  glance,  from  those 
bottomless  eyes,  that  struck  me  like  a  death- 
thrust. 

Even  in  my  exhausted  physical  condition  I 
could  not  bear  to  see  the  dog  killed,  and  I  went 
off  alone  along  that  cold  and  barren  shore  to 
comfort  myself  as  best  I  could.  The  dog  had 
been  more  to  me  than  any  of  the  men,  and  as  he 
had  seen  the  other  dogs  killed  for  food,   I  still 

266 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

think  that  he  knew  his  life  was  to  be  sacrificed 
to  save  us  and  he  died  willingly! 

At  first  I  thought  that  I  could  not  eat  the 
meat  of  that  faithful  animal,  but  with  the  return 
of  an  intense  hunger,  animal  instincts  predom- 
inated and  I  ate  the  flesh  of  a  true  friend,  who 
had  given  up  his  life  that  I  might  live  a  little 
longer.  To  us  there  seemed  to  be  no  hope,  yet 
we  held  on  as  long  as  there  was  a  spark  of  life 
left.  We  felt  little  or  no  physical  sufferings  now. 
We  had  nothing  left  but  our  sleeping  bags, 
which  were  almost  worn  out  and  the  spring  snow 
storms  covered  us  with  soft  down  when  we  slept. 
I  sank  down  on  the  beach  and  the  rest  is  a  blank 
to  me,  and  as  I  look  back  I  feel  that  I  have  indeed 
experienced  a  horrible  death. 

My  first  impressions  of  a  returning  conscious- 
ness gave  me  a  hazy  idea  that  somebody  or 
something  was  moving  about.  For  a  long  time 
I  was  unable  to  figure  out  who  I  was  or  where  I 
was  or  whether  there  ever  had  been  such  a  person 
as  I.  Then  gradually  I  became  aware  that  I  was 
in  a  white  bed  and  a  woman — a  nurse — was 
moving  about  in  the  room.  My  poor  jumbled 
mind  was  unable  at  the  time  to  comprehend  any 
more  and  I  fell  into  a  sleep.  Awakening  refreshed 
I  recovered  quickly  and  the  nurse,  a  pretty 

269 


MAD  EUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

English  girl,  explained  to  me  where  I  was  and 
how  I  came  to  be  there.  All  this  happened  on 
April  18,  1899,  in  the  Sitka  Hospital,  which  had 
formerly  been  a  part  of  the  Greek  Church. 

The  details  of  our  rescue  areas  follows:  It 
appears  that  the  United  States  revenue  cutter, 
Wolcott,  in  command  of  Captain  Adams,  had 
been  cruising  along  the  coast  for  the  protection 
of  the  seal  industry  and  the  sailors  had  been 
attracted  by  the  smoke  from  our  fires,  on  which 
we  had  placed  every  particle  of  driftwood  we 
could  find  for  miles  along  the  shore,  and  even 
the  skins  of  the  dogs.  Sending  a  boat  ashore, 
they  found  only  four  of  us  alive;  the  other  three 
men  were  lying  dead  in  their  sleeping  bags.  We 
were  quickly  taken  aboard  and  given  medical 
attention  and  the  Wolcott  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  Sitka,  where  we  were  placed  in  the 
hospital.  We  had  been  in  the  hospital  for  a  week 
before  I  regained  consciousness. 

We  recovered  rapidly  and  within  another  week 
the  four  of  us,  who  were  found  alive,  Pitman, 
Wilson,  Murtha  and  myself,  were  able  to  take  a 
little  walk  around  Sitka,  which  was,  at  that  time 
the  capital  of  Alaska.  It  was  only  a  few  days 
more  when  we  took  the  steamer  Discovery  for 
Seattle.    While  at  Sitka  and  later  on  the  boat, 

270 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

we  heard  much  about  a  strange  war  that  we  did 
not  understand.  It  was  not  until  we  reached 
Seattle  that  we  learned  that  the  Spanish- 
American  war  had  been  waged  to  a  successful 
conclusion  while  we  were  in  the  wilds  of  Alaska. 
It  all  seemed  so  unreal  that  I  have  trouble  yet 
in  thinking  of  the  Spanish-American  War  as  a 
real  contest. 

Our  first  action  after  arriving  at  Seattle  was 
to  telegraph  to  our  wives  and  parents.  My  wife, 
who  had  mourned  me  as  dead  for  two  long  years, 
thought  that  someone  was  playing  a  cruel  hoax 
upon  her  when  the  telegram  was  delivered. 
Seattle  seemed  to  be  an  entirely  different  city 
from  what  it  was  when  we  left  it  two  years 
before.  The  place  was  a  comparatively  quite 
business-like  town,  lacking  all  the  horrible 
scenes  that  made  it  hideous  before.  The  traffic 
and  the  noises  dimmed  our  ears  and  it  seemed 
that  we  would  never  get  used  to  it  after  the  long 
silence  in  Alaska. 

Two  days  after  our  arrival  I  was  surprised  to 
pick  up  the  Seattle  Times  and  read  an  article  to 
the  effect  that  our  party  had  arrived  with 
$500,000  worth  of  gold  dust  and  nuggets.  Then 
the  light  began  to  dawn  upon  me  and  I  began  to 
realize  why  these  wild  stories  were  printed.    To 

271 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

boom  business!  Yes,  to  make  business  for 
Seattle  and  the  transportation  companies!  Even 
so.  But  I  cannot  forget  nor  forgive.  The 
heartlessness  of  it,  the  awful  consequences  in 
human  wretchedness,  suffering  and  misery! 

The  officers  of  the  Wolcott  gave  us  the  money 
that  had  been  taken  from  the  dead  bodies  of  our 
unfortunate  comrades,  and  we  bought  some 
cheap  clothes  and  shoes  and  started  for  home 
over  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  Although 
we  were  anxious  to  get  home,  we  felt  a  peculiar 
dread  of  meeting  our  folks.  As  I  stepped  from 
the  ferry  into  New  York  City  the  noise  again 
bewildered  me  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  I 
made  my  way  to  my  home.  My  hair  and  beard 
were  still  very  long  and  as  I  walked  along 
people  stopped  and  laughed  at  me.  Although 
my  wife  had  received  my  telegram,  she  failed 
to  recognize  me.  It  was  not  until  my  little  six 
year  old  son  stretched  out  his  arms  and  ran  to 
me  that  my  wife  finally  managed  to  realize  who 
I  was.  To  her  my  return  at  first  seemed  uncanny 
for  she  felt  that  I  was  returning  from  the  dead. 


272 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 


Other  Parties  Who  Started  with  Us  Fared  Badly. 

Letters  Arrive  from  Alaska.    Blakely  Went 

to  Pieces  on  Return  Trip.     Washington 

Scientists  Claim  to  Have  Discovered  the 

Glacier  We  Crossed  Two  Years  Before. 

The   Two    Native  Guides    Perish. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

EFORE  bringing  this  narrative  to  a 

B  close,  there  are  several  incidents 
growing  out  of  my  experience  that 
must  be  explained.  When  I  arrived 
in  New  York  City,  I  found  that  my 
wife  had  never  received  any  of  the 
letters  which  I  left  with  the  mis- 
sionary, Mr.  Johnson,  at  Yakutat, 
to  be  mailed  to  her.  However,  four  months 
after  my  return  they  arrived  postmarked  Yak- 
utat, Sitka,  Fort  Wrangell  and  Juneau,  Alaska. 
They  had  evidently  been  given  by  the  mission- 
ary to  a  trading  vessel  going  north  and  had  been 
carried  up  in  the  Arctic  and  left  somewhere 
at  a  station.  At  least  this  is  the  only  possible 
way  that  I  can  explain  it. 

The  Blakely,  the  old  tub  that  we  sailed  to 
Alaska  in  from  Seattle,  after  discharging  her 

275 


MAD  BUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

cargo  at  Yakutat,  loaded  her  hold  with  many 
tons  of  sand  for  ballast  for  her  return  trip.  She 
was  wrecked  at  the  mouth  of  Cross  Sound  and 
from  what  I  later  learned,  all  on  board  were  lost 
except  the  first  mate,  Mr.  Jung. 

As  for  the  other  parties  who  took  passage 
with  us  on  the  Blakely,  all  fared  equally  as 
badly  as  our  own  party  and  none  of  them  got 
any  gold,  as  far  as  I  know.  After  suffering 
untold  hardships  and  losing  eighteen  men,  the 
Dennison,  Texas,  party  and  the  St.  Paul  party 
finally  reached  Dawson  City,  where  two  of  the 
Texas  party  had  to  have  their  feet  amputated, 
due  to  being  frozen.  The  Manchester  party, 
two  of  whom  I  had  often  corresponded  with  for 
years,  suffered  as  much  as  we  through  scurvy, 
typhoid  and  starvation;  they  lost  nine  men,  two 
of  whom  were  drowned  in  the  Yukon  River 
when  their  boat  upset.  They  came  out  of  Alaska 
by  way  of  the  Yukon  River  to  St.  Michaels. 

Three  of  the  men  who  were  rescued  with  me 
are  still  alive,  but  they  have  always  been 
broken  in  health.  Mr.  Pitman  became  blind  as 
a  direct  result  of  his  sufferings  from  snow  blind- 
ness in  Alaska  and  at  present  keeps  a  newstand 
on  Fourteenth  Street,  New  York  City.  Mr. 
Wilson,  who  like  myself,  was  left  near-sighted, 

276 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

is  in  business  in  Long  Island  City.  Mr.  Murtha, 
who  also  became  blind,  is  spending  his  remaining 
days  in  Southern  California.  He  never  recovered 
from  his  Alaskan  experience  and  is,  and  in  fact 
always  has  been,  in  poor  health.  As  for  myself, 
from  the  first  three  months  after  arriving  home 
I  have  never  felt  better  in  my  life,  due  in  part, 
I  think,  to  the  systematic  training  I  have  always 
taken  and  the  healthful  work  I  have  been 
engaged  in  ever  since  my  return,  as  physical 
director  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations and  playground  director  of  a  Los 
Angeles,  Cal.,  playground. 


277 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

SCIENTISTS  FIND 
ALASKAN  GLACIERS 


Many  Discoveries  and  Good  Sport  Re- 
ported by  Members  of  Mr.  E. 
H.  Harriman's  Party. 


1900 

Tacoma,  Wash.,  Thursday. — Two 
Washington  State  members  of  Mr.  E.  H. 
Harriman's  party  of  scientists,  now 
exploring  Alaska's  coast,  have  returned, 
having  left  the  steamer  Elder  at  Kodiak. 
They  give  accounts  of  the  Elder's  cruise, 
which  indicate  that  Mr.  Harriman  and 
the  scientists  will  return  laden  with  many 
laurels.  They  seem  to  have  developed  a 
mania  for  glaciers,  having  visited  and 
explored  more  than  thirty,  some  of  which 
were  unknown  except  to  natives. 

In  one  bay,  not  shown  on  the  maps  or 
charts,  they  discovered  an  immense 
glacier,  not  as  large  as  the  giant  Muir, 
but  much  more  grand  and  picturesque. 
This  bay  extends  inland  more  than 
twenty  miles,  and  at  a  point  near  the 
glacier  a  sounding  line  of  forty  fathoms 
did  not  touch  bottom.  This  inlet  they 
named  Unknown  Bay.  It  was  here  that 
the  Elder,  manoeuvring  among  the  cakes 
of  ice  from  the  glacier,  broke  a  propeller 
blade,  making  it  necessary  to  return  to 
Orca,  where  repairs  were  made. 

At  the  head  of  Disenchantment  Bay 
they  found  four  glaciers  which  had  never 
been  seen  before  by  white  men.  In 
Icy  Bay,  twenty  miles  across,  opposite 
Carroll's  Glacier,  the  party  discovered  a 
new  glacier  with  a  front  of  three-fourths 
of  a  mile.  This  was  named  Harriman's 
Glacier. 

The  above  appeared  in  a  New  York  City 
paper  a  year  after  our  return. 

278 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

One  year  after  my  return  from  Alaska,  I  was 
greatly  surprised  and  provoked  one  morning  to 
read  in  a  New  York  newspaper  that  a  party  of 
scientists  from  Washington,  members  of  the 
E.  H.  Harriman  party,  were  reported  to  have 
discovered  four  large  glaciers  in  Disenchantment 
Bay,  which  had  not  been  seen  before  by  white 
man,  and  then  giving  them  names  after  members 
of  their  party  and  friends.  The  fact  is  that 
somewhere,  in  the  third  glacier  over  which  the 
Manchester  and  our  party  had  traveled,  lie 
the  bodies  of  several  of  our  party  and  their  dogs 
and  loaded  sleds  which  went  down  those  treach- 
erous crevasses.  The  Texas  and  St.  Paul 
parties  made  their  way  to  Dawson  after  first 
crossing  the  fourth  glacier  where  they  also  lost 
four  men  in  crevasses  under  practically  the  same 
conditions  that  we  did. 

I  even  doubt  that  we  were  the  first  white  men 
to  have  seen  them.  As  Duke  Abbruzzi,  when  he 
attempted  to  scale  Mount  St.  Elias  in  1896, 
sailed  in  Disenchantment  Bay  must  have  seen 
them,  so  also  did  Lieut.  Russel,  U.  S.  A.,  who 
was  on  the  same  mission  as  Abbruzzi.  But  one 
thing  is  absolutely  certain,  we  were  the  first 
white  men  to  have  ever  crossed  the  Malaspina 
Glacier  to  the  interior,  according  to  the  natives 
at    Yakutat. 

279 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

I  do  not  mention  the  above  to  contradict  the 
report  of  the  Harriman  party,  or  to  lessen  the 
value  of  their  statement,  as  no  doubt  they  were 
sincere  in  the  statement  they  made,  but  if  they 
had  stopped  at  Yakutat  with  their  steamer 
Elder,  they  would  have  learned  the  truth  from 
the  natives  and  missionary  there.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  two  of  the  Yakutat  natives 
named  Koomanah  and  Koodleuk  acted  as  our 
guides  across  the  glacier  and  then  went  on  with 
the  Manchester  party;  they  never  returned, 
having  perished  as  the  party  reached  the 
Yukon,  near  Dawson. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  state  that  as  I  grew 
well  from  the  effects  of  my  experience,  I  felt 
that  I  owed  to  the  world  something,  so  I  entered 
the  work  of  physical  director,  where  I  could  be 
instrumental  in  the  building  up  of  a  better  and 
stronger  race  of  boys  and  young  men,  to  better 
enable  them  to  meet  the  demands  of  their 
future  life.  And  the  playgrounds  have  no  better 
calling  with  that  purpose  in  view. 

END 


280 


MAD  RUSH  FOR  GOLD  IN  FROZEN  NORTH 

THE   PAST 

Thou  unrelenting  Past! 
Strong  are  the  barriers  round  thy  dark  domain, 

And  fetters,  sure  and  fast, 
Hold  all  that  enter  thy  unbreathing  reign. 

Far  in  thy  realm  withdrawn, 
Old  empires  sit  in  sullenness  and  gloom, 

And  glorious  ages  gone 
Lie  deep  within  the  shadow  of  thy  womb. 

Childhood,  with  all  its  mirth, 
Youth,  Manhood,  Age  that  draws  us  to  the  ground, 

And  last,  Man's  Life  on  earth, 
Glide  to  thy  dim  dominions,  and  are  bound. 

Thou  hast  my  better  years; 
Thou  hast  my  earlier  friends,  the  good,  the  kind, 

Yielded  to  thee  with  tears — 
The  venerable  form,  the  exalted  mind. 

My  spirit  yearns  to  bring 
The  lost  ones  back — yearns  with  desire  intense, 

And  struggles  hard  to  wring 
Thy  bolts  apart,  and  pluck  thy  captives  thence. 

In  vain;  thy  gates  deny 
All  passage  save  to  those  who  hence  depart; 

Nor  to  the  streaming  eye 
Thou  giv'st  them  back — nor  to  the  broken  heart. 


281 


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>vr      <k 


>  193 


'MOV  2  4 1984     « 


JUL    24  1937 


ieNov'59gF 


REC'D  LD 


NOV   41959 


ntf^* 

"C*D  i-D 

I  PNl 

RETURNED  TO 

JAN  S 

LOAM    AHC 

LD  21-100m-7,'33 

to circ  MARi6^ 


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